The Buffyverse: Until The End
by nicitta
Summary: Plagued by dreams of two deceased vampires and slightly in over her head in a new age of Slayers awakening all across the world, Buffy teams up with her old allies when she hears of a new force rising in Los Angeles. Upon arrival the young Slayer soon realizes that she faces a war of a scale and magnitude greater than she could ever have imagined. Major Sequel for the Buffyverse.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: **This is my official head-canon of how the two shows of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel would have continued. I have been spinning it out in my head since forever and I actually wrote the first bunch of chapters a whole while ago, but never thought about publishing until now._

_I know that the comics are supposed to be the official sequel for the shows, but I simply do not like them. This story will of course be my interpretation for a lot of things on the show, so I am sorry if it does not appeal to everyone, however I will try to keep it as true to Joss Whedon's verse as possible, or at least my view of it. ;)  
_

_Since my usual beta is not really up to date on the Buffyverse, this fic will remain unedited for the time being, though I will try to do my best in evening out any errors myself.  
_

_So I think that's all for now haha, enjoy and let me know what you think! :)_

* * *

**Chapter 1  
**

. . .

_There was no escape. They were everywhere._

_As the seemingly endless army of demons swept down the dark street it, became clear that nothing would be able to stand in its way. Nothing but the four dark figures facing them in the middle of the street, weapons at the ready, faces determined._

_Even though they were facing certain death, there was no sign of fear in their eyes. They were ready to resist until the end. The horde of demons came closer as the four companions waited quietly. They would not last for long._

_"In terms of a plan?" asked one of them and looked up to the leader, his platinum blonde hair glistening in the rain._

_"We fight," the man answered as he slowly stepped forward._

_And with an almost joyful expression toward his oncoming enemies he raised his sword._

_"Let's go to work."_

. . .

With a gasp of horror Buffy Summers woke from her dream. It took her a moment to return to reality. Everything seemed so real – the rain, the cold, the beastly cries of attacking demons. All things she was more than familiar with. Although she hadn't been in such a huge battle since the Hellmouth had been closed, she still remembered what it had been like. She had seen enough apocalypses to last her a lifetime after all.

Through the open window the sounds of Rome's buzzing street life drifted into her bedroom. Buffy rubbed her aching forehead and gazed at the alarm clock next to her bed. Six thirty.

"Damn," she moaned. Time to get up.

By the time Buffy had finished taking a shower, Dawn had got up as well, her wonderful morning mood serving once again as a source of annoyance for her older sister. "Morning!" she called out cheerfull as Buffy arrived in the kitchen.

"Hm," Buffy grumbled moodily.

"Wow, you're in a good mood!" Dawn rolled her eyes and turned back to her cereal.

"I'm sorry, didn't sleep well," Buffy mumbled and sat down at the table, "Weird dreams, that's all." It wasn't like this was the first time it ever happened to her.

"Ooh, were they Slayer-type dreams?" her younger sister instantly piped up, a look of glowing interest settling into her eyes. Buffy had to smile at Dawn's excited expression. Her enthusiasm at anything Slayer-related had been hard to control ever since Tara had let her do research for the very first time.

"Sorry, no," she answered still smiling, "Just normal dream-type dreams really. Nothing special."

"Pf, that's boring," Dawn chuckled, shoving the last bit of cereal into her mouth and continuing to speak despite the food. "Well at least you have something to look forward to. I can't tell you how excited I am!"

Buffy felt her spirits rise immediately. The stupid dream had even made her forget that Willow was arriving this afternoon. She hadn't seen the bubbly redhead for so long that it seemed like her birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas had all been wrapped up together in one day.

"Yeah, me too," she responded with a happy smile. "I haven't seen her in ages, it's gonna be so great to see her again."

"Totally!" Dawn agreed, "We'll have so much catching up to do." As she got up to put her bowl in the sink, she continued speaking to her sister. "When are you picking her up again?"

"Right after work," Buffy informed her. "I think her plane's gonna land around five…" She would have to verify that from her calendar. "Do you wanna come?" she suggested to her little sister.

"Gosh, I'd love to," Dawn replied, looking disappointed. "But I promised Vittoria that we'd study together. Wait up for me please!"

"No worries," Buffy laughed, "We'll probably be up all night talking anyway."

The two sisters left the house together and took off in different directions, Dawn heading toward the subway that would take her to school, Buffy toward the nearby grocery store. While working off her weekly shopping list she felt her suppressed worries about the dreams resurface. It was not the first time she was having that dream, in fact she had gotten used to it over the past two years. Sure they had not all been the same, there had been some variations here and there, but it still always ended the same way.

At first these dreams had made sense to her. She had thought that she was just processing her grief through them, even Giles had told her that it was normal. But what she didn't understand, was why – almost two years later – she was still having them all the time. The reason she had stopped telling Dawn about them, was because she didn't even like to admit to herself that they were in fact still agitating her. It was just too much to think about. Supporting her sister while trying to focus on her own life, working for the council by rounding up Slayers, dusting the occasional vamp or even following Giles' distress calls once in a while, if he had once again deciphered an old prophecy about some terrible occasion… those were things she could more or less deal with. She didn't want to think about her two former boyfriends on top of everything else.

Good thing Willow was going to be there soon, Buffy thought on her way home. She longed for the support that only her best friend could provide.

. . .

"Stupid plane!" Buffy muttered to herself in frustration after another crowd of passengers had left the terminal.

She had been waiting at the airport for a half an hour now and dozens of people had already arrived, only none of them came from London Heathrow. Not that delayed flights were an unusual thing, but Buffy was too excited to be patient.

She had not seen Willow in a long time. They had talked on the phone a couple of times but that just wasn't the same thing. The miles between her and her best friend sometimes ached unbearably, but it had been difficult to keep in touch ever since they had left Sunnydale three years ago.

Everyone had taken off in different directions. Xander had needed time alone to recover from Anya's death, so he had travelled to a lot of different places including Africa, Australia and Japan, where he still was now. No one except Willow, who had flown there once, had seen him since. Although Buffy understood his pain only too well, she still wished he would call more often, for she really missed him.

Willow and her girlfriend Kennedy had lived in Brazil for a while, until moving back to California where they settled down in Palo Alto in order for Willow to go to Stanford University. From what Buffy had heard on their last phone call, she really liked it there. As for Giles and everyone else, most of them had now settled down in England and were in the process of bringing the Watcher's council back to life. Most of the Slayers had been working with them since then; like Buffy they were searching for all the other Slayers who had awakened all over the world.

In these past years all of them had done a lot of work. Giles and Andrew had managed to locate a few remaining Watchers who hadn't been killed by Caleb's explosion, including Mr. Wyndam-Pryce, her former watcher Wesley's father. A lot of their allies, including Buffy were now stationed in different parts of the world, each of them gathering up and training their own squads of Slayers. The one closest to Buffy was Shannon who was living near Valencia, Spain. Faith had been in Cleveland guarding the remaining Hellmouth together with Robin Wood, although she was in England at the time discussing strategies about Los Angeles with the council.

A new danger had been rising there in the last two years and none of them were sure how to react to this. A new danger ever since…

Suddenly Buffy's train of thought was interrupted, when in the midst of the next crowd coming through the terminal, she spotted a young woman with flowing red hair.

"Willow!" she shouted cheerfully, unaware of all the people turning at the sound of her loud voice.

"Hey, Buffy!" Willow responded with equal enthusiasm and the two hurried toward each other, happily throwing out their arms to meet in a crashing hug.

"Oh God, it's been like forever!" Buffy almost sobbed over the waves of emotion that were flooding over her at the feel of her best friend in her arms.

"I know," Willow responded, holding onto her as if she were afraid they'd be ripped apart again any moment. "Oh, I've missed you so much!"

After what seemed like forever, they finally broke apart and smiled at each other.

"Wow, looking good Will", Buffy stated while examining her friend's tanned skin. "Get a lot of sun in Stanford?"

Willow giggled, gesturing in her usual jumpy manner. "Well if you've got a girlfriend who keeps forcing you outside, sure!"

Both of them laughed while Buffy picked up Willow's suitcase and they headed toward the exit, chatting. "So Stanford's really working for you, huh?" Buffy wanted to know as they headed through the huge airport.

"Oh yeah, I love it!" Willow told her. "I managed to pick up most of the courses I had in Sunnydale and there are some really great professors! Professor Steele from psychology is amazing!"

"Ooh, so no evil government scientists?" Buffy threw in playfully.

Willow laughed at that. "Oh God, I hope not! She seems normal enough." She then frowned and went on. "Although I can't really say that I suspected Walsh."

"Yeah, me neither," Buffy agreed, remembering her first year in College that now seemed so long ago. "Be careful if she wants to send you on a mission," she said casually adding a slight shrug. "Cause that probably means she's trying to kill you."

"I'll be careful, promise," Willow said laughing. "I don't think there's anything to worry about anyway. Demons – not really that active in Palo Alto!"

"Really?" This surprised Buffy. "And Kennedy isn't bored? I was sort of under the impression that she couldn't get enough of her Slayer powers." Kennedy had always proven to be one of the most eager Potentials back in Sunnydale.

After making their way across the airport, the two of them finally reached the subway and came to a stop on the platform to wait for the train.

"She can't," Willow replied smiling. "But she still has more than enough to do, I mean there are always some vampires on campus now and again…"

"Uh, Will," Buffy interrupted in slight alarm, quickly glancing around at the people around them. "Low voice on _vampire_ during rush-hour!"

"Oh, right, sorry," Willow chuckled nervously. "Palo Alto's a small city, not really used to that."

After they had forced their way into the train with all the other passengers, Willow finished telling Buffy what Kennedy had been up to. Apparently her squad was doing really well. Right now it consisted of 38 Slayers that she was training. Buffy could easily imagine Kennedy as a leader since she had always been very keen on expressing her opinion back in Sunnydale. What surprised her more was that Kennedy had also managed to enrol at Stanford.

"I hope it won't sound offending when I say _huh_?" Buffy put on her most incredouls expression. "How did she get into Stanford?" she chuckled in amusement. "Did she like bribe or something?"

"Well," Willow frowned. "You know her family's got quite a bit of money, so…"

"Oh," Buffy said, embarrassed at her slip. "Well… that's good, r-right?" She tripped over herself while hastily trying to fix it. "I, I mean, um… a-a lot of people pay for college, it, it's… not a bribe-thing, and, uh…"

Willow laughed. "It's ok, Buffy, calm down!" The redhead was more than aware of her best friend's tendency to put her foot in her mouth.

Buffy smiled awkwardly as Willow went on. "She just figured why not go to the same college, you know?" she explained, a happy smile forming on her face while she talked about her girlfriend. "She's not taking as many courses as I am cause of the Slayer-training, but still, it's nice."

The train came to a squeaking stop as they arrived at the station near Buffy and Dawn's apartment. While they were walking down the cobbled street, Buffy told Willow what she was doing at the time. After all the tables she had waited in cafes and cheap restaurants during their first few months, she had finally managed to find a secretarial job at an employment agency, mostly due to the fact that her Italian had greatly improved through all the courses she had been taking. Her salary was better there, so she had been able to loosen the belt a bit the last couple of weeks especially with Dawn baby-sitting once in a while.

Back in the apartment Buffy made them both some coffee and they sat down at the kitchen table to continue on their conversation.

"And how are your junior Slayers doing?" Willow wanted to know. "Eager to learn from the _Slayer extraordinaire_?"

When Buffy frowned disapprovingly, she got flustered. "Sorry," she muttered apologetically. "Andrew-speak."

"Yeah, I sort of figured," Buffy chuckled. "I think they're doing pretty good. I haven't got any newbies right now, so I only see them once a week and the rest of the time they train with each other or patrol the cemeteries." She hesitated for a moment, feeling quite pleased with herself. "I kinda think it's good for them if they're on their own after a while, you know? Makes them more independent."

"And of course to relieve you of having to patrol yourself every night," Willow said grinning and Buffy smiled cheekily in response. It was rather nice having a whole squad of Slayers to send on duty so she could just relax for an evening if she felt like it.

"Lot of undead action in Rome?" Willow then wanted to know.

"Oh yeah," Buffy sighed. "Like vultures! You'd kind of think they'd grow tired of the same game." She shook her head while for the umpteenth time wondering about the never-ending reliability of the bloodsuckers. "You know attacking women in dark alleyways with the ever so popular previous stalking before…" she continued casually. "Shouldn't they be trying something new after a few centuries? But no they're there every night!"

"Big cities I guess," Willow shrugged. "Always interesting for vampires."

"Yeah, I guess," Buffy said sipping her coffee. "So how's witchcraft?"

Willow's face lit up with enthusiasm at once. "Oh yeah, it's going great! I work on my spells every day and I just made a quick visit to the coven in England, you know before I came here and I got to work with them again," she recounted in excitement. "And after what happened in Sunnydale they weren't even that afraid of me than last time!"

"That's… good… right?" Buffy responded confused.

"I know that sounds strange," Willow laughed. "But it meant a lot to me. It means I've really come a long way since the last time I was there."

"Oh you did, trust me," Buffy instantly concurred. "We've got the Slayers to prove it!"

Willow was staring happily into the distance, clearly reliving that extraordinary moment. Not for the first time a little part of Buffy wished that she could've been there with her friend to experience it, because from what she had heard it had been more than amazing.

"You also saw Giles and everyone, right?" she broke the silence after a while. "How are they, anything new?"

She was confused to see the joy on Willow's face slowly shift into worry. "Well they're all right, I guess…" she started slowly. "They're all, you know… kind of … tense." She gave a strained smile, evidently trying to loosen the mood. "But they told me to say hi!" And she waved her hand in salutation.

"Tense… Cause of L.A.?" Buffy asked, ignoring Willow's effort to change the subject.

Willow nodded carefully, examining her face. "Are you ok with talking about this?" she said quietly, as if she were trying to subdue an upset animal.

"Will, come on," Buffy said, rolling her eyes in annoyance. "I've known for months now. I have to be able to talk about it someday."

"Well yeah, that's true but… it's not really that easy," Willow explained softly. "Believe me, I know. I still don't know if I'm really over Tara." She smiled sadly and there was still that ever-lasting hint of pain visible on her face. "I mean… I've moved on to the happy place, where you, you know… can let go and start remembering the good times instead of being sad the whole time, but still…" She gave a small sigh, apparently not wanting to say more about the subject of Tara.

"Yeah, I get it…" Buffy mumbled, hiding from Willow's gaze by staring down at her cup. "But still, you'd think I'd be used to this by now, they've both died on me once already!"

"I don't think you're entitled to get upset about that," Willow murmured with a slight shrug. "Dying twice and all."

This made Buffy smile for a moment. "What did Giles say?" she then asked. "You know, about L.A.?"

"Well, we already know it's fallen into a demon war zone…" Willow said carefully.

"Right," Buffy remembered. "Cause the Seniors or whatever they're called created an inter-dimensional portal by setting loose that army."

"Senior _Partners_," Willow corrected her and continued. "Right, so because of that portal, they've had massive amounts of demons of all kinds and dimensions overrunning L.A. Giles…" – she hesitated for a moment – "he's scared."

"Scared…" Buffy repeated, feeling uneasy. When her former Watcher got worried, it was usually a very bad sign. "What do you mean? And why wouldn't I know about this?"

"Well…" Willow stammered sheepishly. "I wasn't really s-supposed to tell you." At the sight of Buffy's incredulous face she continued hastily. "He… you know he just didn't want you to worry 'til he's absolutely sure what's going on."

"So he can tell Faith but he can't tell me?" Buffy responded angrily. She couldn't help but feel betrayed at the thought of Giles trusting Faith more than her.

"Buffy, I… please don't be too upset at him," Willow tried to explain helplessly. "He just knows how difficult it is for you…"

"Gee, who am I, Bella Swan?" Buffy complained. "Will, do I look like I'm gonna throw myself off a cliff here?"

Willow smiled weakly.

"Ok," Buffy frowned, reconsidering her words. "Not the best way to convince you, huh."

"Ya think?" Willow chuckled.

"Ok, let's just forget about it, tell me!" Buffy insisted, determined to find out what was going on.

"There's not that much to tell really," Willow said. "Giles is just worried cause the portal didn't close after it… you know… after they were killed." There was a moment of very tense silence as both of them realized what Willow had almost spoken aloud. The two vampires' names were hanging between them like a thick, depressingly black cloud.

"I mean, that was the only reason it was there, right?" she continued, pretending to not have noticed the moment. "But the demons just keep on coming. And when I say war zone… I mean _war zone_. They're fighting each other and killing people" – she chuckled humorlessly – "Well, obviously. The government's talking about gang violence… probably they've already got some secret ops thing going, but we know how reliable they are. But that's all stuff you more or less know."

"What about the people?" Buffy asked. "Can't they leave the city?"

"Well, I'm sure the ones with possibilities have already left," Willow responded with a nod. "But, you know, most of them… they have nowhere else to go. As long as the situation's still bearable, I'm guessing they'll stay."

Buffy thought about this for a while, then she suddenly remembered what Willow had said before. "You said I know all this stuff. What don't I know yet?"

Again Willow hesitated, but decided to go on. "Something I know from the coven," she said. "Althenea, you know, the seer? She's been sensing something. Her power sort of works through energy, she picks up waves of magical energy and it allows her to follow these waves in her mind, it's a fascinating sort of magic, I've been trying to get her to teach me…"

"Um, Will," Buffy interrupted, as she sensed Willow's fascination was starting to lead her off topic. "L.A.?"

"Oh, right, sorry, got carried away," she muttered with an insecure chuckle and carried on. "She says she's sensing inter-dimensional activity around the city, which probably is the reason why the portal won't close… The problem is we have no idea what it is." She sighed in defeat. "And as long as we don't know what's going on, we can't do anything about it… that's probably why Giles is scared," she added. "You know he gets cranky when he doesn't know something."

"Oh yeah," Buffy said with an affectionate smile. "Doesn't really happen a lot, him not knowing something."

With nostalgic fondness she thought of her Watcher. She also hadn't seen him in months, it made her so sad to remember that there had been a time when all of them had seen each other every day. Now life had managed to pull them all apart and there was nothing she could do about it.

"I miss him," she said softly and immediately felt the need to do something against his worries. "Is there really nothing we can do?"

"I know," Willow answered understandingly and there was a nostalgic smile appearing on her face that made Buffy realize she was thinking the same thing. "He misses you too. But… honestly? I don't think so," she shrugged. "He'll call us as soon as he knows more. Until then, what would we do?"

Both of them were quiet for a while. Willow swayed her cup back and forth a couple times and watched the remaining coffee slosh around. Buffy absent-mindedly played with her hair, while trying to think of the best way to tell her friend about her dreams without freaking her out again. She had to talk about it with someone or she would go crazy. And whom would she talk to if not Willow?

"Will?" she started slowly, as Willow looked up from her cup. "If I talked to you about something, that's… you know, bothering me… would you promise not to freak out?"

"Buffy, you're my best friend," Willow responded immediately, her expression growing worried and sympathetic. "You can tell me anything!"

"And you won't freak?" Buffy insisted, wondering whether or not this was a good idea.

"Promise." She nodded encouragingly. "Tell me."

Buffy hesitated as the images of a thousand wildly roaring demons crept back into her mind. "You… you remember those dreams?" she started cautiously. "You know, the ones I was having right after it happened?"

Willow nodded. "Well," Buffy went on. "They sort of… they haven't stopped. I still have them almost every night."

The extreme compassion that now spread on Willow's face was exactly the reaction she had been afraid of. She did not want to be coddled or believed to be weak in any way; that would only make her believed-to-be allies shut her out again from anything they thought she couldn't handle.

"I'm fine, really!" she harshly insisted. "Will, please don't look at me like that…"

"Oh… no, I'm sorry…" Willow shook her head as if to get rid of her compassionate expression. "It's just… Buffy, why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I don't know…" Buffy responded. "There wasn't really much to tell until now. I just don't get why they won't stop, you know, I can't get rid of them!" She was surprised to hear her own voice grow louder, sounding more and more upset. Now that she was saying it out loud, it felt like it was bothering her much more than she had realized. "I don't even know if they're real, it probably didn't even happen the way I'm imagining it, so… so why do I keep having them?"

Willow looked at her knowingly. "Buffy… do you feel guilty?" she asked quietly.

"What?" she said baffled. "Why would I feel guilty? I wasn't even there when it happened."

"Exactly," Willow nodded.

Buffy frowned in confusion, for she wasn't exactly sure where Willow was going with this.

"Buffy…" she started slowly. "After you died to save Dawn, I went to L.A. to tell Angel"-

"Will," Buffy immediately interrupted her. "I don't know if I wanna hear this story"-

"Wait, wait, I'm not telling it," Willow tried to calm her down. "I just wanna explain something!" Buffy looked at her warily, but said nothing further, allowing her to continue. "My point is," she went on. "After his breakdown all he kept saying was _I should have been there_. And he kept… rambling it over and over again. What I'm trying to say is… he couldn't stand the fact that he didn't have the chance to save you."

Buffy sighed and wanted to say something, but Willow beat her to it. "Look, Buffy… I know it's not exactly what you wanna hear, I'm just trying to help you. You have to deal with these things!" she said imploringly. "Last time you suppressed them… you ended up taking off."

Buffy looked down at her hands and thought about what Willow had said. "Do you know, what was the last thing Angel heard from me?" she whispered reluctantly. She shook her head in remorse still staring at her hands. "My order of taking the deranged Slayer away from him because… I didn't trust him anymore."

Willow's face was once again flooded with waves of sympathy. "But Buffy, you didn't know"-

"Didn't I?" she asked and continued sarcastically. "No, of course I didn't. I mean it's not like I knew him. Not like I dated him for more than a year and spent every moment with him." The anger in her voice was not directed at her friend, but at herself. "No, of course, I couldn't have known!"

Unable to sit still any longer, Buffy got up and started pacing around the room. Willow opened her mouth desperately trying to find the right thing to say.

"And Spike…" Buffy's voice broke as she thought about him. "I didn't even know he was alive, Will," she whispered. "Not until Andrew finally told me, but it was already too late then, wasn't it?"

She stood still in front of the window and looked out onto the street, where the last stragglers of the day were now hurrying home in the twilight. Everything seemed so peaceful, so content. Why couldn't she be a part of it?

"Story of my life," she murmured to herself.

"Buffy..." she heard Willow's voice from behind her. "It's not your fault. I-I know it's… hard, it's terrible… but please, don't blame yourself."

"I don't…" Buffy sighed softly and turned around to face her. "I know it's not my fault. It's just… you can't help but wonder _what if_… you know?"

"Yeah," Willow said with a sad smile. "I know."

A moment later they heard the front door loudly slam open and Dawn's voice rang out through the apartment. "Buffy?"

"In here," Buffy called back.

Dawn came running into the kitchen and squealed delightedly. "Willow!"

"Dawnie, hi!" Willow exclaimed and got up to hug her. The two women embraced, laughing cheerfully while Buffy looked over at the clock that hung next to the fridge.

"You're home early," she noted. "Be honest, did you really study?"

"_Gee, welcome home Dawn, how was your day?_" Dawn imitated her sister's voice with a sly grin."It was great, Buffy, thank you for asking!"

"Ok, ok, I get it, I'm sorry!" Buffy laughed and kissed her playfully on the cheek as she got up to put away the coffee cups.

"And it's nine thirty," Dawn went on. "I'm not really home early."

"Guess we just forgot the time," Willow said cheerfully, her eyes affectionately clinging to Buffy's little sister. "So Dawnie, how are you? I wanna know everything!"

"Ok first of all you have to stop calling me that," Dawn protested, her disapproval eased by a note of amusement. "I'm almost nineteen!"

Buffy watched smiling as the two of them sat down at the table again and Dawn happily started telling Willow about everything that was new, starting with her boyfriend Danny. She felt much better now that she had talked about her dreams. Willow was right, it wasn't something that would leave right away but she knew it would get better with time.

As she joined them both in their conversation, she realized just how happy she was that Willow was finally here.


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N: _**_Since quite a lot of people seemed to like the first chapter, I'm gonna be continuing this on a regular basis. :) Thanks so much to everyone who is reading! I also want you to know that since these chapters are quite long (and they will only get longer haha), my update schedule will not be any faster than once a week... at least until I posted all the chaps I already wrote til now, we'll see how that works out when I need to fully write from scrap again. Anyway, that's all haha, enjoy the chapter! ;)_

_Unbetad, so sorry for any errors._

* * *

**Chapter 2**

. . .

"Go round the back, they're getting away!"

"I do not need you to tell me what to do, vampire!"

"Yeah, whatever, just do it!"

While Illyria strutted toward the next corner, Angel braced himself for the coming attack from the vampire he had just knocked to the ground. As it lashed out to strike him, he lifted his left arm to block while using his right arm to punch it in the face. Then he quickly spun around to kick a second vampire who was charging at him, full in the stomach. Without warning the first one jumped at him from behind and slammed him to the ground, but Angel managed to throw it over his head, using the momentum of the fall. Just as he had managed to scramble back to his feet, the second vampire charged at him again. Using all of his force, Angel punched him so hard that he staggered back into his companion, sending them both tumbling to the ground once more.

Angel sighed and shook his head at the two vampires. "You're kinda pathetic, you know that?"

Growling furiously both of them got to their feet and charged him mindlessly. He easily knocked one of them aside, while extending one of his retractable wooden stakes out of his sleeve, which he thrust into the other one's chest. With a stunned look of disbelief still forming on the vampire's face he exploded into a cloud of ashes. Before his companion had realized what was happening, Angel plunged the stake into his chest as well, making him suffer the same fate.

With both of them defeated Angel hurried around the next corner, only to find Illyria standing there next to an even bigger pile of ashes.

"The human yammers," she noted indifferently about the shocked, quivering man lying on the ground next to the ashes.

Angel ignored her and quickly kneeled down beside him. "Are you all right?" he asked.

The man seemed too shocked to speak for several seconds, but he struggled to push himself up and fearfully looked around. "W-what were those things?" he murmured, sounding horrified.

"Vampires," Angel responded curtly while helping him up. "Things you're gonna have to get used to in this city."

The man stared at him in stunned disbelief. "I…" he stammered. "I have to…" And without another word he took off running into the night.

"Ignorant imbeciles," Illyria sneered appearing again on Angel's side as they both watched the running figure disappear into the darkness. "After all this time, do they not know what is happening?"

With a sigh Angel looked at her, seeing the distorted, cold features of what had once been Winifred Burkle. He never seemed to be able to look past that. "It's called denial, Illyria," he answered. "People repress what they can't explain and rationalize the rest."

Illyria slightly tilted her head to the side as she kept her eyes fixed on the spot where the man had disappeared. Angel looked around the streets searching. "Damn it, where is he?"

Not a moment later he suddenly heard the loud noise of a roaring engine coming closer and closer. He couldn't believe his eyes when suddenly a huge motorcycle shot through the crossroads and pulled over before them, carrying a grinning man with blazing blonde hair.

"Spike, what the hell are you doing?" he yelled angrily over the noise.

Spike ignored him and laughed excitedly. "Any of you mates want a ride?" he asked while he was turning off the engine.

"Seriously? A motorcycle!" Angel said furiously, stepping closer to the huge bike and shooting his fellow vampire a disbelieving gaze. "Could you possibly attract more attention to us?"

"Suit yourself!" Spike shrugged. "Lot quicker this way."

"We're trying to keep a low profile!" Angel went on, feeling absurdly like he was scolding a wild teenager. "Where did you get it anyway?"

"Took it off a vamp who attacked me," Spike responded with a self-satisfied grin. "Oh, wait!" All three of them turned at the sound of a woman's scream that had just rung out nearby.

"I'll get it!" Spike said, cocking his brow playfully at his companions as he started up the engine again.

"Spike, no wait…" Angel called out but Spike had already taken off. "Damn it!" he growled, while looking over at the motionless Illyria. "I'm telling you, he's gonna get us killed one of these days."

The two of them chased after the sound of the motorcycle. As they got closer to the spot where the scream had come from, Angel's enhanced hearing senses allowed him to detect several grunts and bangs, followed by the sound of dissolving ash. Just as he hurried around the corner to where the sounds were coming from, he caught a glimpse of flying long hair disappearing into the dark.

"Oh that's right! Just take off, no need to thank me!" Spike yelled after the girl, seeming somewhat irritated. "Stupid cow."

"Spike, stop yelling," Angel tried to calm him, coming to a stop at his side. "She's scared."

"Then she bloody well shouldn't be out roaming the streets in the middle of the night!" Spike retorted aggressively.

The three of them stood there in the alleyway for a minute, listening intently for more sounds of distress in their immediate proximity, but apart from a few cars in the distance, there was nothing to be heard.

"How many did you get?" Angel asked, trying to get a feel fro the situation.

"Two," Spike responded, turning to look at him. "Vamp and a Sloth demon. You?"

"Five vampires," Angel said, counting his and Illyria's encounters as one.

"Slow night," Spike murmured with a skeptical edge to his voice, as if he didn't really trust the unusual sense of safety.

Angel looked up to the sky, which was already starting to lighten indicating that daybreak could not be far away. "All right, it's gonna be dawn soon," he said to his companions. "Let's call it a night."

"Yes," Illyria agreed quietly. "They will soon be everywhere."

Spike nodded as well and started walking over to his parked motorcycle.

"Without the motorcycle!" Angel said loudly and authoritatively.

His fellow vampire gave him a condescending look. "Bugger off," Spike shot back. "I can do what I want!"

"Fine!" Angel responded in exasperation. He really didn't feel like dealing with a rebellious Spike right now. "Then at least give me a ten minute head-start." And he started walking down the street, away from the blonde vampire and his bike.

"Why?" Spike called after him.

Angel sighed and turned around. "Case in point – I don't exactly feel like getting captured," he explained impatiently, as he held his hands out in a final gesture.

As he and Illyria set out to head back to where they had come from, Spike defiantly reparked his motorcycle. "Ponce," he scoffed to himself and followed them.

They didn't have any further encounters with demons on the way back to their current hideout; after all this time they had learnt that it was best to keep themselves unseen. Of course there were also a lot of both people and demons that weren't interested in their whereabouts whatsoever, but unfortunately they could never tell who was in league with Wolfram & Hart. Their spies were everywhere, sifting through the lowest sewers of the city and sitting amongst the highest ranking positions in the administrative offices.

So life in Los Angeles had changed. Nobody publicly talked about it, but the firm was in complete command of the city, subtly controlling all the public authorities and deliberately increasing chaos by letting more and more demons cross over from other dimensions. The atmosphere in the city was changing day by day. Angel knew something was coming, something big, but he had no idea what it was.

The ignorance annoyed him, for it had been quite some time since he had been so entirely out of the loop. Back when he had been running the offices he had had his fair share of information even before he infiltrated the Circle of the Black Thorne, not to mention the absolute clarity of every situation he had achieved after. Now he was just a commoner again, an insignificant shadow in the street life of Los Angeles, much like he had been when he had first come here. But he was planning on changing that.

A short while later they had reached the empty warehouse they were currently hiding in. Spike and Angel slipped into the basement, while Illyria stayed up in the hall staring out the window. Over the long period of time that the three of them had now spent together, the two vampires had learnt that it was best to sometimes just let her be.

"What the hell is she doing?" Spike wondered quietly when they were out of earshot.

"Being Illyria," Angel sighed, his mind not really resting on his blue companion but already speading ahead to his next move. "Listen, Spike… You lay low for a while, I'm gonna go to the Hyperion, see if Gwen found out something."

"And what am I supposed to do?" Spike retorted challengingly. "Sit home and knit?"

"I don't know," Angel sighed once again in frustration. "Look at the pages we got yesterday." He gestured toward the large file of documents that was lying on the rocky table in the middle of the room.

Spike gave him an almost scolding look. "You mean the pages we nicked," he corrected him. The past evening they had managed to intercept a staff member of a local bank that they knew was working with Wolfram & Hart and had stolen all of his files for a general meeting. "Nothing in there," he sounded discouraged. "I'm telling you."

"Yeah, whatever," Angel said absent-mindedly. "Just look at them, it's all we've got right now."

"Wait, so you get to go out while I'm stuck here doing the bloody paperwork?" Spike challenged him once again, evidently not happy with the situation.

Angel simply rolled his eyes and turned around to leave. "Brilliant," Spike said, sounding like he was incredibly close to sulking.

As he was heading out for the sewers, Angel came across Illyria, who was still standing by the window observing at the slowly rising sun. "Illyria?" he said quietly.

She didn't turn around. "The city is growing darker," she murmured and he wasn't sure if she was speaking to him or to herself. "There is no warmth left in the sun."

Angel didn't know what she was trying to say with this, but he was in too much of a hurry to think about it. "I'll be gone for a while", he told her. "Just stay here ok?"

When she didn't respond, he left her standing there and set out for the sewers, which would take him to the Hyperion Hotel. While he was walking along the narrow tunnels, he realized once again just how desperate he was for information. For the past two years, ever since he and his allies had betrayed the firm and murdered the Circle of the Black Thorn, they had been trying to live like this, hiding in abandoned buildings (the numbers of which had been increasing in the past months), trying to protect the citizens of the evil they had brought on them themselves and waiting for the inevitable retribution, which was sure to come for a crime as big as betrayal. They had been trying to obtain information as often as possible but it had proven almost _impossible_ to do so, since they were all wanted dead by the biggest force of the city.

But only a few weeks ago Angel had suddenly learned rumors that there was a secret prophecy inside of Wolfram & Hart, which foretold the apocalypse as the firm had been planning it from the beginning. He had learned this from Wesley, the only usable spy he still had left within the system.

A sharp pain struck through Angel's body as he thought of him. Wesley, who had been with him since the beginning. Wesley, who, despite his bravery had not survived the battle against the Circle. Wesley who deserved to rest in peace, but could not do so because he remained tied to Wolfram & Hart even in his afterlife, forced to haunt the place of its power as a restless spirit, almost like Spike had been after he had been brought back from the Hellmouth.

Angel had first seen this a few weeks after his death. One night Wesley had suddenly appeared to them in one of their hideouts. He remained Angel's one lead into Wolfram & Hart, though he was an unreliable source, because – obviously – no one would grant the ghost of one of his allies insight into their actions.

But he had managed to provide one or two useful leads once in a while, one of them being this prophecy. And since she was the best thief he knew, Angel had entrusted Gwen, a woman whose power consisted of the ability to control electric energy, with the mission of apprehending it.

Once he had reached the sewers beneath the Hyperion, he climbed up into the basement of the hotel. While he was wondering how to find Gwen without being recognized by anyone, the door on the top of the stairs opened and a young man of barely twenty, holding a clipboard, descended down into the basement.

"Connor!" Angel exclaimed, happy to see that his son seemed to be doing all right under the circumstances.

Connor looked up from his clipboard absent-mindedly. "Hey," he murmured in response and examined him from head to toe. "You ok? You look better than the last time you were here."

"I heal fast," Angel explained, even though he knew that his son already was a party to that information.

"Right. Vampire thing," Connor said with a nod and walked over to a large cupboard, from which he took two small drug bottles.

"How about you?" Angel started insecurely, for he was never sure if his son wanted him to take an interest. "Everything ok around here?"

Connor shrugged. "More or less, yeah. We're totally over-crowded but they haven't shut us down yet, so we can't complain." There was something so incredibly bitter and weary about the way he spoke the words.

"That's good…" Angel responded, not knowing what else to say. "Do you know if Gwen's in?"

"Yeah, she is," Connor said, his brow furrowing slightly as he wondered what the vampire wanted.

"Could… could you send her down?" Angel asked.

Connor sighed, looking down at his clipboard to see if he had everything he needed. "I don't think that's a good idea," he then answered, shaking his head. "She got hurt, Nina's taking care of her."

"Oh," Angel was instantly concerned. He wasn't sure if Connor blamed him for this or not. "Is she gonna be all right?"

"Yeah," Connor shrugged. "It could've been worse. Come on, I'll take you to her!"

"Connor, wait," Angel called, while Connor headed back up the stairs. "Are you sure it's safe? If somebody sees me… I-I don't wanna get you in trouble"-

"Oh, please," Connor chuckled. "If they wanna find out that you've been coming here, they've got a million ways to find out – if they don't already know. Come on!"

Angel reluctantly followed his son up into the hotel and through the rooms, which he knew so incredibly well. The entrance hall was full of various people, from desperate mothers with children to older and forlorn people, who looked dirty from life on the streets.

"Everything ok here, Stacy?" Connor asked a young woman, who was hurrying around the hall, talking to people and taking notes. She looked stressed out and sweaty from all the hard work by herself.

"I could use some help," she said breathlessly. "If you're going up, could you look for Sarah and send her down?"

"Yeah, I'll see if I can find her," Connor promised, before the two of them headed up the stairs to the upper floors.

"She new?" Angel wanted to know.

Connor nodded. "Yeah, Nina managed to get a couple of her school friends to help out. Thank God, we couldn't have done it any longer by ourselves!"

Angel was surprised at this, because to him the hotel had always seemed very well organized. After Los Angeles had fallen into chaos, his son Connor, together with the vampire's ex-girlfriend Nina, and Gwen, had been setting up a sanctuary and safe haven for people who had nowhere else to go. They were especially dedicated to picking up homeless people off the streets, so they had protection from the growing number of demons that threatened to rip them apart otherwise.

Although he would never be brave enough to tell his son this (also because he didn't know if Connor even wanted to hear it), especially after everything that had happened between them, Angel was proud of Connor. He remembered his son telling him – after he had gotten his memories back – that this wasn't his world, that he wanted no part in it.

Now however he seemed perfectly comfortable. In a time of crisis he hadn't left the city, he had decided to stay and help. Of course his parents (well, his fake parents) weren't too happy with their son's course of action, but since he was now a grown-up, they had no say in it anymore.

Stuck with this train of thought, Angel spoke again. "How's your family?"

Connor looked surprised at the question, but he still answered. "Oh, they're… fine, thanks."

"You see them a lot?" Angel wanted to know.

This triggered an almost nostalgic sigh from his son. "No, I don't," he murmured quietly. "They moved to San Diego."

"Oh," Angel said, for he didn't know what else to respond to this.

"Why do you ask?" Connor wanted to know and there was a slightly suspicious undertone in his voice.

"I don't know," Angel murmured self-consciously. "I just thought I'd…"

"Show an interest?" Connor suggested.

Angel looked at him, feeling taken aback. Connor immediately shook his head and sighed. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "It's just… I don't like to talk about it. They still haven't accepted it."

"Well, it's understandable," Angel tried to explain to him. "They're worried about you."

"Oh, please, don't start," Connor instantly retorted, a defiant expression on his face. "I don't wanna hear the same from you too!"

"No, no, that's not what I meant at all," Angel tried to calm him. "Wasn't my intention, I… I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

They had now reached the suite on the top floor, where Angel had used to live while he had still been running Angel Investigations. "No, it's ok." Connor sighed, trying to meet the vampire halfway as he reached for the doorknob. "It's nice that you asked."

And he opened the door and walked into the room, revealing the two women that were sitting on the bed. Gwen had her shirt rolled up and a slightly pale and anxious-looking Nina was sitting behind her, dabbing at three large, bloody tears in her skin.

"Hey, guys", Connor said and went over to give Nina the bottles, taking a look at Gwen's wounds in the process. "You feeling any better?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Gwen nodded and her tousled brown looks danced around her from the motion. "No biggie!" She looked up. "Hey Angel. Here for the news?"

"Pretty much, yeah," he responded, taking a step toward them. "Sorry you got hurt."

"Nah," Gwen waved it away with her hand, a nonchalant grin on her face. "Don't worry about it!"

Nina quietly patched her up and then proceeded gathering up her things. "I'm gonna head down to the other rooms," she murmured, keeping her gaze firmly locked on the medicine she was holding in her hands.

"I'll come with you," Connor said, looking over his clipboard absent-mindedly.

Nina came to a stop next to Angel and stood there for a moment, clearly trying to think of something to say. "Unless…" she said and nervously started playing with her blonde hair. "Unless you… need something?"

"No," Angel answered softly, shaking his head. "Thanks."

She nodded, smiling politely and followed Connor out the door.

"Wow!" Gwen chuckled to herself. "Awkward much?" She had already rolled down the skin-tight shirt she was wearing over her bandages and faced the vampire in a loose and confident posture.

Angel ignored her comment and came straight to the point. "Did you get it?"

Her usually confident and cocky aura instantly weakening at the question, Gwen sighed and responded in a hopeless manner that Angel had seldom witnessed in her. "No, I didn't."

A big numbness went through the vampire's body as he felt all the hope he had built up inside at the prospect of finally being one step ahead of his adversaries' collapse into nothing. "Why not?" he demanded in an uncomprehending tone.

"It wasn't where you said it would be," Gwen shrugged though her expression was far from indifferent. "And I checked any other place I could think of. I didn't find it!"

"But… but that doesn't make any sense!" Angel insisted, moving closer and closer toward the wounded woman as if he was inching his way toward prey. "Wesley said it would be there"-

"Well, no offence to your ghost," Gwen interrupted angrily. "But he doesn't seem like a very reliable source or it would've been there!" She shook her head as if she couldn't believe his simple-mindedness. "Did he ever actually see the book he was talking about?"

"Gwen, he eavesdropped on them for weeks," Angel explained impatiently, even though he had already told her this several times while convincing her to go through with the mission. "He followed them around, he saw them take it to the vault"-

"Yes, Angel," she interrupted him again. "He saw them taking _a_ book, but did he ever see _the_ book, you know, did he see it was exactly the one with the so-called prophecy?"

"I – I don't know…" Angel suddenly felt insecure. "He told me it was there, he was sure of it!" he continued, desperately trying to find an explanation. "It has to be somewhere, you just didn't find it!"

"Angel," Gwen started impatiently "I told you"-

"No!" Now it was his turn to interrupt her. "You didn't find it, you didn't even look hard enough"-

"Ok, that's enough!" she bellowed furiously.

Angel immediately stopped talking, for he realized that he had gone too far. "I did this for you, as a favour, ok?" Gwen spat, sounding as if she were on the verge of becoming seriously upset. "I don't think you realize just how tight security is at Wolfram & Hart right now!"

He regretted having pushed too hard and wanted to apologize. "Gwen, I…"

But she didn't let him. "I got attacked, I could've got caught!" she went on yelling. "And I never would've gotten in there if I hadn't taken off L.I.S.A." She pulled up her shirt and pointed to the small metal device, which was attached to her lower back. It was the one thing that prevented her from electrocuting anything she touched.

"You don't know how much I hate doing that," her angry voice now suddenly morphed into a whisper. "Every time I do something to it, I'm afraid it's gonna break. If that would happen, I don't know what I'd…" She broke off mid-sentence and looked down at the floor, wrapping her arms protectively around herself as she sank back down onto the edge of the bed. All of her usual bravado seemed to have vanished on the spot.

"I know, you're right… I'm sorry," Angel sighed and sat down on the bed next to her. "Of course you did everything you could…" He wanted to comfort her, but he just couldn't get rid of that gaping feeling of hopelessness that was spreading within him. "It's just…" He didn't want to surrender to that feeling. He wouldn't. "It has to be somewhere, I need that prophecy!"

He jumped to his feet again and started pacing around the room. "Where else could it be?" he called out desperately to no one in particular. "I don't know what else to do!" And he ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

"Well, if you ask me…" Gwen suddenly started cautiously. "It probably doesn't even exist."

Angel turned around and stared at her in disbelief. "What?" he demanded.

"Oh, come on," she said, rising to her feet as well to face him stubbornly. "You've been scrambling around town for months, jumping at every clue you can get!" She shook her head, but her eyes were imploring, because she wanted him to seriously consider how well he could be fooled in his desperation. "You don't think it's possible they played you?"

"Why would they play me with something like that?" Angel asked blankly.

"Um… maybe because it's exactly what you're looking for?" Gwen retorted, sarcasm dripping from her every word. "The Senior Partners have been planning this apocalypse from the beginning, you said so yourself! Come on, think about it, why would they suddenly need a prophecy for it?" Angel vigorously shook his head, almost like a stubborn small child in denial. "Plus if there was a secret prophecy," she went on mercilessly. "Wouldn't you think they'd hide it a bit better from someone like say… you?"

He turned away from her, still shaking head, refusing to see what a horrible amount of sense her words were making. "No, that doesn't make sense!" he growled, contradicting his own thoughts. "What would be the logic behind a move like that?"

"They're moving you around like a pawn!" Gwen laughed humorlessly, unable to believe how good he was at denial. "I don't know what the hell their plan is, but I'm sure it's not gonna be pretty!"

"I've just gotta talk to Wesley again," Angel insisted. "He'll know where"-

"Look, would you face reality, please?" Gwen shouted. "Just this once, Angel!"

Angel stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her. "There is no prophecy," she said calmly. "I'm sorry."

There was a long moment of silence, during which the deadly weight of her words hung between them like the black pit of sorrow that they implied. Angel took a deep breath, shaking his head defiantly once again.

"No," he whispered. "You're wrong." And he left the room as quickly as possible, slamming the door behind him.

The walk through the hotel seemed endless to him, even though he was walking as fast as he could. He knew he hadn't been fair to Gwen, but he couldn't worry about that right now. As he hurried through the numerous hallways, he barely took notice of anyone, he saw neither Connor nor Nina, he just wanted to reach the exit as fast as possible. The entrance hall was even more crowded than the first time he had come through. He overheard Stacy saying something about a demon massacre on the streets, while she was telling her friend how many humans had got caught in the crossfire. It would've shocked him, only events like that had become so horribly _normal_ over the course of the past two years.

After he had climbed back down into the sewers, he stopped for a long moment, leaning against the wall, breathing heavily even though his organs had no need for oxygen. His body felt completely numb, like all of his energy had been sucked dry by the black pit of Gwen's words.

There was nothing left. No plan, no strategy, nothing. Just three fugitives, who would eventually get caught.

He slowly started walking along the tunnel, back to where he had come from. All he had done in the last months suddenly seemed so meaningless, for what had he achieved other than survival? Their defeat of the Circle of the Black Thorn had seemed like such a huge gesture at the time, but obviously a power like Wolfram & Hart was not so easily shaken.

It had been a small earthquake, perhaps large enough for them to punish the city by turning it into a demon war zone. But at the end of the day it didn't make a difference to people like them.

_Power endures._

He himself had said the words, but only now did he truly understand their meaning.

As he was walking through a crossing with another tunnel, still lost deep in thought, a dark figure suddenly lunged at him from the side without warning. Angel was taken completely by surprise and had no chance whatsoever to defend himself, as he was slammed backwards to the ground. Before he had time to react, a second figure appeared and kicked him hard in the side.

The hurt vampire writhed on the ground in pain, but had enough strength to roll to the side and push himself back to his feet. He managed to block his first attacker's right hook, but received a huge blow to his stomach from the second one. While he was still gasping for air, they both grabbed him by the arms and slammed him front forward into the wall.

"Now, now, girls," a voice came drifting over to them from the dark. "Give him some air."

Angel wrenched free of their grip and stepped toward the tall figure that was now emerging from the sewer tunnel, recognizing the evilly gloating features of what had once been Charles Gunn.

"What do you want?" he hissed. "You're not taking me alive, you know that!"

"That's funny coming from you," Gunn chuckled. "_Alive_. And by the way if I was planning on bringing you in, I would've brought a bigger entourage than these two jarheads." One of the vampires behind Angel growled disapprovingly.

"If you're not here to fight," Angel retorted aggressively. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to talk…" Gunn said cheerfully and casually started pacing back and forth. "You know… see how my old boy's doing… remember the good times… when one of us was still alive…" He paused for a moment and looked at Angel, revealing the distorted features of his vamped out face. Angel didn't react, but watched him warily.

"What, ain't you gonna apologize to me again?" Gunn joked and started speaking in a whiny voice. "_I'm so sorry I couldn't save you, Gunn!_" He seemed to be enjoying his own joke more than anyone else, including his minions.

"No," Angel said quietly. "I'm not. You're not Gunn."

"Fine," Gunn shrugged. "Keep telling yourself that." He continued pacing back and forth infront of his prey. "Word has it someone broke into Wolfram & Hart the other day. Branson's not too happy about it."

"Tell him to sit tight," Angel responded casually. "I'm sure he'll figure it out soon." Tyler Branson was the new CEO of Wolfram & Hart, the one that had come in to replace Angel after his betrayal to the firm.

"Who'd you send, Angel?" Gunn asked, ignoring Angel's pretended ignorance. "Intruder was masked… but still, moved like a girl… I'm guessing Gwen?"

"Working for Wolfram & Hart, Gunn?" Angel countered. "Is that really what you wanna do with your afterlife? Strikes me to be a bit too corporate for a guy like you."

"Well, I guess you're right," Gunn answered with a nod. "Not really working for them." He shrugged nonchalantly. "But in my book, ain't nothing wrong with playing for the winning team" – he paused, locking gazes with his former friend, now enemy – "and with getting in a little personal revenge."

Angel remained silent.

"They will take you down, Angel," he went on, displaying nothing but complete confidence in his words. "They've got one hell of a show planned and I'm gonna be in the first row to see it happen." He smiled triumphantly. "It's only a matter of time."

"That your brilliant plan?" Angel responded with a condescending chuckle. "Trying to scare me with threats I've heard a million times? If they so desperately wanna make me pay, how come they haven't started yet?"

"Oh, they have," Gunn teased, obviously enjoying the momentary power he was holding over the opposing vampire as he slowly walked past Angel, over to his companions. "The time just ain't right for the big finale yet."

Angel turned around to face them. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he demanded, his mood split between irritation and anger.

Gunn grinned gleefully. "All in good time, my friend." And the three of them turned around to leave. „All in good time."

While he watched them disappear into the darkness of the tunnels, Angel felt the sudden urge to hit something. After he was sure that they were out of earshot, he struck out and angrily smashed his fist into the wall a few times. It felt good to blow off steam.

"Hey, look who's here," Spike grumbled as a greeting when Angel reappeared in the basement room of their hideout a while later. "Perfectly broody as ever. I take it that's not a good sign, then?"

"She didn't get it," Angel said in a low and defeated voice. "It wasn't there."

Spike's face instantly fell to an expression of endless disappointment, before he shielded himself with his usual gloomy mask and shook his head. "Well, what did we expect?" he said with a light shrug. "Would've been too bloody easy."

He listened quietly while Angel told him the rest of the story, that Gwen thought the prophecy didn't exist. "Sounds like those bitching suits," he said when his fellow vampire finished explaining. "Get you going on a wild goose chase while they sit at home, playing Big Brother with their sodding spy instruments."

"Yeah," Angel muttered, not knowing what else to say.

Spike sighed and briefly opened the thick file that was still lying on the table. "Nothing new in here," he grumbled indifferently. "Your name's mentioned once but only to say that they're keeping up the same policy. Official standpoint is still that we're all dead… seems they don't want anyone to think we're a problem."

Angel almost felt the urge to laugh at this; after all it wasn't like they were much of a problem.

"You know, you never see my name in these reports," Spike then pointed out in dislike. "All they care about's the poncey ex-boss. What's a bloke gotta do to get noticed around here?"

"Yeah, well, you're welcome to do the honours," Angel snapped tiredly, for he didn't feel like dealing with Spike's quips right now.

Illyria, who had been sitting quietly in the corner all this time, suddenly spoke up. "Time is running short," she said in her usual cryptic tone. "We will not last for long. I have seen it many times. Kingdoms rise, enemies fall. We are nothing but insignificant vermin." The words seemed even worse spoken in her completely indifferent manner. "They will crush us with their heals before we'll ever succeed becoming a threat to them."

"Yes, Illyria," Spike said rolling his eyes in irritation. "Thank you for that very uplifting pep-talk!"

"No, she's right," Angel sat down against the wall, feeling completely discouraged. "We're screwed. It's only a matter of time."

A depressing silence started to spread within the basement.

"You always were a bit of a drama queen," Spike sighed.


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N:** Yeah, remember when I said my update schedule would be once a week? XD Well, I'm not gonna bore y'all with the details of why I couldn't do it til now haha... Just enjoy the chap and I hope you like it! :)_

_Unbetad, so sorry for errors._

* * *

**Chapter 3**

. . .

The sun shone warm on the city of Rome, when Buffy and Willow left the house on Saturday morning.

Willow had been staying there for almost a week now and today Buffy was taking her to Slayer training for the very first time. The past couple of days Buffy had felt enormously carefree and happy, which was something that rarely happened to her these days. Spending this much time with her sister and best friend just made her feel strong and loved, like she had a place in the world other than slaying.

"Oh, and I told them last week that you were coming," Buffy told Willow on the subway. "And seriously, they're all so excited to meet you!"

"Gee, like I wasn't already jumpy enough," Willow chuckled nervously, while playing with a strand of her red hair. "You know… you're Slayer-gals and… and I'm just Witch-gal… It's like High School all over again!"

This made Buffy laugh. Even though Willow had become the most powerful person she knew, there was always still that hint of a High School-underdog that remained within her. "You'll do fine, Will," she assured her. "Just, you know…" – she pursed her lips thoughtfully – "be sure to mention that none of them would be here without you and they'll be too scared to even say anything."

A while later they arrived in the gym downtown, where Buffy rented a big training room once a week. When they entered the room on the first floor of the building, the 34 girls were already doing their usual warm-up.

"Hey, guys!" Buffy called out to them cheerfully.

"Hey!" all of them responded in perfect unison.

"Wow, neat," Willow chuckled to herself while the two of them walked over to the corner of the room.

"It's ok, finish up," Buffy told the girl standing at the front of the group of Slayers, leading the warm-up. "I'll get ready."

The girls continued on their usual kick-box combos, while Buffy and Willow set down their bags in the corner, watching them. "That's Laurie," Buffy told Willow in a low voice and pointed to the brunette, tanned girl leading the warm-up. "Don't tell this to any of the others but she's my best one." She smiled proudly to herself. "One of the first ones I met when I came here."

"She really seems to know what she's doing," Willow acknowledged with an approving nod as she watched Laurie perform her graceful movements. Meanwhile Buffy took off her jacket and pulled her long hair back into a ponytail.

"All right, girls," she called a few minutes later after they had finished and stepped forward to face them at the center of the room. "Remember I told you that my best friend Willow was gonna come visit us?"

"Hey, guys!" Willow said with a gentle smile and waved nervously.

"She's been with me from the start," Buffy said proudly. "Almost nine years now." God, had it been so long already? It was so easy to forget how far they had all come.

"Yeah," Willow giggled. "One of the original Scoobies…"

"Scoobies?" Laurie asked with a confused look on her face, while some of the girls laughed at the expression.

"Yep, that was what we called our little club back in Sunnydale…" Willow laughed. "And I just realized that I've got no idea where it came from…" She frowned to herself, trying to remember. "Who came up with that name?"

"I have no idea," Buffy sighed in amusement. „But I'm willing to bet it was Xander."

"Xander…" a blonde girl from the right side of the crowd spoke up. "He the friend who's in Australia now?"

"Japan, keep up Jill!" another girl said and laughed.

Buffy grinned at Willow. "I tell them a lot."

Before Willow had a chance to respond, another girl next to Laurie decided to address her. "So, Buffy said you're responsible for calling all the potentials to life," she started curiously. "Is it true?"

"Well…" Willow said insecurely. "Y-you could say that, I guess… I, I just pulled a little witchcraft really…"

"God, would you stop being so modest, Will?" Buffy laughed, reaching over to give her best friend a one-armed hug.

"So, you're really a witch!" the same girl said excitedly. "That is so cool, do you like fly on brooms and stuff?"

"Yeah, I don't think that's how witchcraft works, April!" Laurie giggled and the girls behind her all joined in cheerfully.

After they had all calmed down again, Buffy continued. "All right," she said loudly. "Does anyone have any pressing questions on patrolling? Did everything go ok?"

The girls all nodded and started murmuring among each other. "Ok, great," Buffy went on. "So since you're all doing pretty good, I'd say we look at a more complex attack technique today. Laurie would you be the vampire?"

"Oh, Laurie, ready to get physical?" April joked, which earned her a lot of whistles from the surrounding Slayers and an annoyed look from her friend.

"How much did you tell them?" Willow whispered while the girls bantered.

"Just about the Immortal," Buffy grinned as she responded quietly. "I was still seeing him when I met some of them." She raised her voice again. "Ok, very funny, now let's get to work!"

While Willow stood over at the side of the room to watch, Buffy showed her squad a new technique, which could be used to outsmart a charging vampire. Fortunately Laurie was always very enthusiastic, so it was easy to demonstrate how to utilize a vampire's mistakes while he was charging too quickly. After she had knocked Laurie down at least three times to repeatedly show her technique, she made the girls practice it themselves in groups of two.

"You should be a teacher!" Willow told Buffy cheerfully while the girls were training.

"Really?" Buffy asked feeling flattered and gave her friend a smile. "Well, I guess I could… I did have that counselling job once."

Willow let out a snorting noise, which sounded like she was suppressing a giggle.

"But I think the problem is you're only good at teaching stuff that you yourself are good at," Buffy said thoughtfully.

"You don't say?" Willow responded sarcastically and both of them laughed. "But seriously," the redhead then went on. "They really seem to look up to you! A lot more than they did back in Sunnydale…"

At Buffy's incredulous and disapproving look, she quickly went on, tripping over herself in the process. "Uh, of course you were, you know… D-dealing with an apocalypse at that time, so i-it… it hardly compares."

"I get what you're saying, Will," Buffy chuckled as she remembered her last weeks in Sunnydale. "They're really learning fast. And of course they're not potentials, they're fully activated Slayers." She watched the training girls for a moment before going on. "You know what's funny though?"

"What?" Willow asked.

"You can never really tell who's good at something until you have someone else to compare…" Buffy pointed out quietly, analyzing all the Slayers separately. "There used to be just one Slayer, so whatever she did was good, right?" Well, good _enough_ anyway, she thought while thinking of Quenting Travers' evaluation. "But now that there are so many you start to realize… even though they're all good fighters, some of them are better than others… you know, like, just more meant for it."

"Yeah," Willow nodded in agreement. "I guess it's like that with everything. As soon as you've got several people doing the same thing… there's bound to be a hierarchy."

They stood still for a minute, both of them lost in thought as they watched the girls practice their new routine. "I'm gonna go ask them all individually how they did on patrol," Buffy then decided. "Some of them are too embarrassed to admit that they can't handle the crossbow yet… Wanna come with me?"

The two of them started working their way through the room, talking to each pair separately. Some of them seemed to have had no problems with their crossbows, some hadn't used them and others confessed that they were still having trouble with aiming. By the time they had reached April and Laurie, Buffy was sure that she needed to work on it with all of them.

"Will, would you mind getting the crossbow out of that locker over there?" Buffy asked her and handed her the key to her padlock.

"Ok", Willow nodded and started heading over to the locker.

"Isn't shooting in here gonna ruin the walls?" April asked, looking around the room.

"We're not gonna shoot," Buffy answered. „I just want to show you how to hold the shaft so you can…"

She trailed off without finishing the sentence as she felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. When she looked at the display, her mind went completely blank for a moment until finally realizing what she was seeing.

"Giles is calling me," she stated.

"I thought you haven't spoken in months," Laurie said, brow furrowing in confusion.

"We haven't," Buffy confirmed, still staring at her phone like it had come from an entirely different world. "This is weird, why would he call now?" Had something happened to him? Within moment she had worked herself up to full worry-mode. "Do you guys mind if I take this?"

"No, not at all," April responded. Buffy pressed the answering key but before she could speak, a bloodcurdling scream sounded through the room and made everyone freeze in their motions.

"EVERYBODY OUT!" Willow screamed at the top of her lungs, jumping away from the locker. "IT'S A BOMB, EVERYBODY OUT, NOW!"

Everything happened extremely fast.

Most of the girls screamed in panic and started rushing toward the exit, streaming together into a giant screeching mess in the process. They were trying to push through so frantically, that they were inevitably blocking the doorway.

"Stop pushing!" Buffy shouted desperately and shoved the panicking girls apart to make room. It was only then that she realized Willow had not moved an inch; she was still standing in front of the locker.

"Will, what the hell are you doing?" she screamed and ran over to grab Willow's arm. The beeper on the bomb was going on six seconds. Willow was frantically mumbling under her breath, trying to create glowing bubbles around it.

"I can stop it, I can stop it…" she rambled, but the bubbles kept dissolving, she was too stressed.

"Will, stop this, we have to go!"

Four seconds.

"I can do this…"

Three seconds.

"Will, RUN!"

Buffy grabbed Willow with all of her force, dragged her over to a window and thrust them both through the glass.

The second they had broken through, a gigantic explosion burst through the entire floor, sending balls of flame devour their way through the training room and shattering all the windows. As she was falling towards the roof of a parked car, Buffy felt the searing heat of the flames over her.

With a deafening crash they both dropped on top of the car. Insufferable pain shot through Buffy's body as she rolled off the car and thudded onto the pavement. The screams around her got quieter and everything slowly went black.

. . .

"Hey!" Spike yelled angrily. "Come back here, you…"

He chased after the fleeing vampire, his stake at the ready and jumped at him from behind. As he caught hold of his shoulders, they both crashed to the floor and rolled over the pavement of the dark alleway. Before the vampire could make a move Spike jabbed the stake straight into his heart, sending him into ashy nothingness.

"Bloody coward!" he scoffed.

He jumped to his feet and turned to look back to where he had left Illyria. She was still fighting three demons at once, remaining nothing but a graceful blur from the fluency of her motions. While he was heading back to help her, she dusted the vampire and kept on fighting the two remaining demons. One of them extended a long spike out of its arm. _Polgara demon_, he thought.

Before the demon could use his weapon to stab Illyria, Spike lunged at him from behind. In a swift move he grabbed the spike, broke it on his knee and flipped it over to stab its owner. The demon collapsed onto the street just as Illyria managed to break the other one's neck. They stood there for a moment, quietly staring at the two bodies.

"All right there, pet?" Spike asked.

"I wish to leave." Illyria said callously.

"What about them?" Spike said pointing at a young couple quivering close to them. "We have to say something."

"Why?" She gave him an uncomprehending look form cold, blue eyes.

"Well, cause they're terrified you twit, we can't leave 'em like that!" Spike walked over to the two of them and instantly felt uncomfortable. They were staring at him in awe. He didn't know what to say, Angel usually handled these sorts of things.

"It's all right," he said cautiously. "You're safe now. Just be careful."

"What was that?" the man gasped fearfully.

"It's best if you don't know," Spike sighed. "Trust me."

As he turned around to leave the woman called out to him. "Wait," she stammered. "T-thank you…" He turned back and looked at her for a moment, nodded and then indicated for Illyria to come with him as he left.

"Travelling in packs now, are they?" Spike wondered quietly so the people they were leaving behind couldn't hear him. "Demons combining forces, no wonder the whole damn city's going to shit!"

"Do you believe this is part of their plan?" Illyria asked.

"What, Wolfram & Hart?" Spike responded. "Don't know… but yeah, seems like the type of plan the big guys would come up with. You know, more force to kill."

"I do not understand."

"Well see, if different breeds start to"-

"No, not that…" Illyria interrupted him, but she didn't really seem sure about what she wanted to say. "I don't understand… those humans… How is it that you always know what to say?"

"Oh," Spike was surprised at the question. "I don't, really. It's usually Angel who takes over that hero crap."

"I cannot endure it," Illyria murmured in frustration. "All of this pain and despair… What is it that these humans so desperately need?" She stared intently at the ground while slightly shaking her head. "What are we supposed to give them? It is too much, I can't handle it…"

"Whoa, easy there love," Spike said frowning. "Don't get your knickers in a – vampire!"

Illyria immediately ducked at his warning. As the vampire was still swinging through thin air, Spike quickly punched it in the face, sending it staggering back into his two companions. Illyria engaged on the first one with such force that she ended up ripping his head off. Spike easily staked one of them and struck out for the other who caught his wrist and managed to block his move.

As Spike looked into the vampire's face he suddenly saw recognition spreading on it. "You!" the vampire cried.

Before Spike could react to this, the vampire burst into ashes. Illyria had staked him from behind. "What the bloody hell was that?" he wondered aloud.

He stared at the pile of ashes on the street. "Someone you knew?" Illyria asked.

Spike shook his head. "Never seen him in my life."

While he was still wondering why the vampire had acted this strangely, he spotted another group of demons coming around the corner. It was even bigger than the last one. They were six in total, two vampires and four gruesome looking demons he didn't recognize.

"Oh boy," he muttered to himself. "Fresh supplies!"

Their reaction was however completely different from what he had expected. "There they are!" one of the vampires cried. "It's them!"

Spike and Illyria braced themselves for attack as the six of them charged at once. Spike ducked away from the first demon, which was coming on with way too much force and lifted his leg to kick the second one full in the stomach. The next moment he was tackled by one of the vampires, who smashed him backwards into the wall.

"Where's the other one?" it asked eagerly, pressing Spike against the wall. "Where's Angel?"

Spike chuckled slightly. "Careful, mate," he said and pushed the vampire away with relative ease. "I'm afraid this is a bit big for you!"

He lifted his arm and punched it hard in the face just in time to block a few swings from one of the demons. The sound of dissolving ash told him that Illyria had staked the second vampire and was now fighting three of the demons at the same time.

Spike managed to manoeuvre himself onto one of the demons' backs and reached forward to twist his neck. As the body collapsed underneath him, he jumped up to help Illyria by tackling one of the remaining demons and carrying him to the ground. By the time he had broken its neck and jumped up again, Illyria had already taken care of the last two.

Out of the corner of his eye Spike noticed that the vampire who had attacked him first was now quickly running for cover. "Hey!" he yelled and started chasing after him. „Come back here you sodding…"

He soon caught hold of the fleeing vampire's jacket, yanked him to a stop and knocked him against the nearest wall, leering gleefully at his prey.

"And now," he said to Illyria who was catching up behind him. "Now we find out what the bloody hell is going on here."

"They have searched for us before," Illyria stated untouched.

"But not like this," Spike insisted as he watched the terrified vampire to his feet with a calculating expression. "Not random blokes on the street."

He kneeled down before the vampire who had collapsed onto the floor. "Wanna tell me what's going on?"

"Why should I?" it spat.

"Well," Spike shrugged in fake reluctance. "I tried."

And without warning he jabbed his stake straight into the vampire's thigh, making it scream out in pain. "I'm listening," Spike said casually.

The vampire gasped, but before it could speak, Spike pulled out the stake and stabbed it into its stomach. It screamed again and again and tried to fight, but Spike pushed it back down mercilessly. Again he ripped out the stake and stabbed it a third time, now in the chest.

"Getting warmer," he said, moving the stake around in his prey's flesh to indicate that he was getting closer and closer to its heart.

"Stop!" the vampire gasped. "They put prizes on your heads, please, stop!"

"Demons," Illyria scoffed. "You budge so easily under pain."

"Don't give him ideas, pet," Spike told her off playfully before turning back to his victim. "Prizes?"

The vampire nodded. "Yes… I mean they had them before but they tripled them a couple hours ago."

"And why's that?" Spike asked quietly.

"Oh come on, I don't know…"

Spike yanked out the stake without warning and lashed out to stab it again, but the vampire stretched out its hands and screamed.

"No! Please, don't," it wailed. "Something about you having something that makes you dangerous! They really want you out of the way, say they can't risk anything!"

"And what's that?"

"I don't know," it sobbed pathetically. "Please, I swear! None of us cares what it is, we just wanted the money…"

Scrutinizing his bleeding victim, Spike's brow narrowed threateningly. "If you're lying to me…"

"I'm not, please," it cried. "I swear!"

Spike paused for a moment to think. Hadn't Angel said that Gwen had failed to get the prophecy? What else could it be, that made them so dangerous to Wolfram & Hart?

"Do they want to find it?" he then asked. "Or do they just want all of us dead?"

"I don't know!" the vampire said hastily, still scared that Spike might torture it. "I know they don't want you all dead, just you two, they want Angel alive."

Again Spike frowned. That one was new. "Why?"

"I don't know, please!"

Spike sighed, starting to get annoyed with the constant begging. It would've been exactly what he wanted if he had been in this for the fun of the torture, but he was on business. "Anything else you know?"

"No," the vampire shook its head vigorously.

"Are you sure?" Spike insisted.

"Yes, I'm sure, that's all I know, I swear!" it shouted desperately.

Spike sighed and raised his stake. "Please, I don't know!" the vampire sobbed. "Please, don't hurt me, please!"

"I won't hurt you," Spike said casually and plunged the stake straight into his heart. "Doesn't mean I won't kill you."

While the ash was being blown apart by the wind, Spike got to his feet and decidedly started walking down the street to where they had come from.

"What do you suppose this means?" Illyria asked following him.

"It means we might not be as lost as Angel thought," Spike responded in determination and quickened his pace on the way back to their hideout.

. . .

"But that's impossible," Wesley insisted. "Why would they talk about something like that for months if it doesn't exist?"

Angel sighed. "I don't know," he said. "But Gwen's got a point… Doesn't it seem a little too perfect? We were right there for a whole year yet somehow we didn't manage to see this before?"

"I told you, we couldn't have," Wesley continued, evidently refusing to believe Gwen's theory. "It wasn't in my archives or anywhere else, this was something the Senior Partners considered to be top secret!"

"And now you suddenly heard two co-workers talking about it," Angel responded skeptically. "Doesn't seem very top secret to me."

"But they weren't just two co-workers," Wesley went on. He had explained all this to Angel before, when he had first told him about the prophecy, but he somehow felt a need to repeat it now. "Branson told his number two man this. None of the regular employees knew about it."

"All right," Angel murmured, while he rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Then why would they start talking about it now? If they've had it since the beginning why would it suddenly become important now?"

Wesley paused and looked to the floor, sighing in defeat. Angel knew they both disliked the situation equally as much. This was important to Wesley; after all there was no other way he could contribute. He was tied to the centre of Wolfram & Hart's power, unable to move on, so if he couldn't use this to their advantage, what else was there left for him to do?

"I don't know," Wesley said quietly. "A lot has happened in the city. Maybe that means the end is near. There could be some important detail pivotal to the apocalypse..."

"Or it's just something to keep me distracted," Angel pointed out, remembering his colorful history with the law firm. "Wouldn't be the first time they tried that."

"No, I suppose it isn't," Wesley sighed.

He looked so incredibly disappointed that Angel felt forced to say something. "Look Wes, I'm sorry. I know you were trying to help."

Wesley didn't respond. "Listen I…" Angel sat down against a wall and tried to think of something to say. "I've gotta tell you, I feel… incredibly lost right now. It's like all our efforts were… nothing."

"Well, it's not like we didn't know that before…" Wesley said and came over to stand beside him.

"Yeah, I know," Angel agreed softly. "But still… if you set out on a suicide mission like that… you don't exactly expect to go on afterwards."

"Tell me about it," Wesley murmured gloomily. "I know how Spike felt after he came back. I don't belong here anymore, I'm supposed to move on."

"There's gotta be a way to bring you back," Angel said, looking up at him helplessly. „Just like Spike, we found one for him."

"Too bad you had the person who did it shot," Wesley responded with a slight smirk. "But to be completely honest, I don't feel the need to come back…" He looked into the distance with the air of a man who had passed away long ago. "I was moving on long before my spirit left my body. If you really want to help me… find a way to send me on."

Angel looked into his friend's eyes, feeling so much regret welling up inside of him. Why did all the people in his life keep vanishing? Doyle, Cordelia, Fred, Gunn, all of them were gone. He didn't want Wesley to leave as well, but how could he deny his friend this last request?

"I will," he promised quietly.

A moment later the loud sound of the main door being pushed open rung out through the abandoned house they were staying in. "Angel?" He heard Spike's urging voice. "You still here?"

"Yeah," Angel called out in confusion as Spike and Illyria hurried into the room, looking surprisingly breathless, like they had rushed the whole way back here. "Why, what's going on?"

"Good," Spike said, looking relieved. "They haven't found you yet! Hey Wes, you ok?"

"Wesley," Illyria murmured and gave him a strange look.

"What the hell's going on, Spike?" Angel demanded.

"Just found out something on the street!" Spike said and in a few moments he told them everything that had happened, including the things he had pressed out of the vampire. Angel found himself even more confused when he had ended.

"Didn't you say Gwen didn't get it?" Spike asked.

"That's what she told me," Angel agreed.

"Think she backstabbed us?" he wanted to know.

"Why would she?" Angel responded with a frown. "Nothing in it for her, especially not since she's running the shelter with Connor and Nina…"

"Spike," Wesley joined the conversation. "How do you know he was talking about the prophecy?"

"I don't," Spike admitted. "Just figured that was it. What else could it be, anything come to mind?"

Wesley thought about this for a moment. "Not really, no," he then answered. "The prophecy was the only important device I heard them speak of… at least until now."

"Gwen swore it wasn't there…" Angel sighed in frustration and started pacing back and forth.

"It doesn't make sense," Spike said shaking his head. "We're missing something here!"

"They were onto her," Angel continued, repeating the facts aloud to try to make sense of it all. "She almost got caught…"

"Yes, but she was out of the building before they even located her, so she must've acted quickly," Wesley pointed out. "I wonder if there was some sort of magic at work"-

"Hold on a sec," Angel interrupted him and stopped dead in his tracks, staring at Wesley.

"What?" Spike asked, looking back and forth between them with a dumfounded expression, trying to figure out what he had missed.

"Got out before they located her," Angel repeated Wesley's words. "Gwen was attacked, she barely even made it out before lockdown and she was wounded!"

Wesley looked dumbfounded.

"What the…" Spike muttered.

"Wes, what kind of intruder are we talking about?" Angel went on.

"I assumed it was Gwen!" Wesley responded in confusion. "The alarms started going off, guards were coming in everywhere, I believe the description was _masked female with dark hair_"-

"Only it wasn't," Angel finally deduced. "Wes, is it possible that there were two intruders that day?"

"What, a double agent job?" Spike asked, incredulity obvious in his voice. "Holy…"

Wesley looked like he was finally grasping what Angel wanted to say. "So if Gwen didn't get the prophecy…" he concluded slowly.

Angel completed his thought. "Then who did?"


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N:** Hey guys, back with a new chapter haha :) Enjoy!_

_Unbetad, so sorry for errors_

* * *

**Chapter 4**

. . .

Buffy and Willow had been extremely lucky in the explosion.

When they woke up hours later in the hospital, the doctor told them they had gotten away with only a few bruises and cuts. He was a bit more concerned about Willow, seeing as she still had a slight headache due to the fall. However he wanted to keep them both in the hospital overnight, which lead to a huge discussion between him and Buffy.

"I heal extremely fast!" she kept insisting. "You really don't need to keep me, I'll be fine. Plus" – and she waved a hand over toward her friend – "I can take great care of people, so Willow won't be a problem."

"Miss Summers," the doctor sighed, making no effort to hide his extreme annoyance with Buffy's stubborn attitude. "We can't risk letting you go after such a traumatic experience!"

"Oh believe me, this is not traumatic for me…" Buffy responded, giggling in amusement. "I've been in much worse" – but she caught sight of Willow shaking her head behind the doctor, who was eying her warily – "W-well you know…" she then stammered. "With all the TV and the explosions and the… terrorists nowadays…"

Willow looked like she was about to smack her hand to her forehead. "Ok, shutting up now," Buffy muttered to herself.

There was an awkward moment of silence, as the doctor turned to Willow, a skeptical frown on his face and told her about the possibility of a concussion. "But I feel fine, really," Willow insisted just as vigorously as her friend had. "It's all better now!"

"What about the girls?" Buffy was almost afraid to ask. "I was teaching a class up there, I – are they all right?"

The doctor sighed and put on a solemn expression, but before he could rattle off some standard set of words, she continued pressing him. "What happened?" Buffy demanded.

"Some of the people who were in the building…" he said cautiously. His words seemed so incredibly rehearsed. "They were badly injured. They… they didn't all make it. I'm sorry."

An incredible emptiness spread within Buffy. For months now she had been training these girls, getting to know them, their beings, their wishes and their fears and she hadn't even managed to protect them. She was instantaneously reminded of her last fight on the Hellmouth, where countless people had died. Was it never going to end?

"I need to see them!" she decided almost mechanically and jumped off the bed.

"No, wait," the doctor interfered. "You need to lie down…"

Buffy shoved the protesting doctor out of the way with relative ease and hurried around the curtains to see the other beds. There was a lot going on in the emergency section of the hospital, nurses were bustling around everywhere along with worried friends and relatives of all the victims.

As she walked through the row of beds, Buffy kept noticing girls that she knew. Most of them were unconscious. Others were complete strangers to her, probably people who had been working out at the gym that day. So many had been hurt. She felt completely numb.

"Buffy!" She heard a relieved scream behind her.

She turned around to see Laurie hurrying towards her. "Oh, thank God!" she exclaimed and hugged the shivering girl tightly. "You ok?"

"More or less," Laurie murmured with a trembling voice. She had a huge, bleeding cut on her left cheek and a few bruises on her arms but otherwise there seemed to be nothing wrong with her, apart from the shock of course.. She seemed like she was about to burst into tears. "I… Buffy I tried to help get everyone out… I-I… I shouldn't have run out first…"

"Shh, it's ok…" Buffy said and hugged her again, as tears started running down the despairing brunette's face. "Laurie, listen to me. It is not your fault, do you understand?" She pulled back to give her a stern look. "It's good that you ran out, I'm just glad you're ok!"

"I-I saw them…" she sobbed. "T-they… Andrea… M-Mandy, I-I… why did…"

"Laurie, shh, calm down," Buffy said firmly and placed both her hands against Laurie's cheeks. "I need you to focus ok? We have to find out what's going on!"

Laurie took a deep breath and nodded. "Where's April?" Buffy asked. "Is she ok?"

"Yeah," Laurie nodded, looking incredibly relieved. "She was with me the whole time, she's over at Jill's bed."

"What about her?" Buffy wanted to know.

"The doctor said she broke her arm," Laurie whispered. "And… she got burned up a bit cause her clothes caught on fire…"

Buffy sighed and repeatedly ran her hands through her hair. She couldn't lose it, not here. She needed to keep it together for the girls, if she panicked they would all follow.

"Ok…" she said slowly, when she was sure that her voice was at the calm level it needed to be. "All right, you… you stay here I'm gonna go check on Willow, ok?"

"Ok," Laurie nodded once more.

The doctor wasn't there anymore when Buffy arrived back at Willow's bed; he had probably gone to deal with some of his other numerous patients. "Hey," Buffy said softly.

"Hey," Willow responded staring up at the ceiling.

"How are you feeling?" Buffy asked cautiously, scrutinizing her best friend's face with a worried frown.

"Like I got sucked into a huge rotating generator, spun around a couple times and… now all the plates are gone…" Willow murmured absently.

Buffy smiled weakly and soon after Willow turned her gaze toward her. "I'm sorry," she whispered with a sorrowful expression on her face. "I should've stopped it. I could've stopped it."

"No," Buffy said, decidedly shaking her head. "Will, don't say that… nobody expects you to be able to do such powerful magic under such pressure."

"But I should still be able to," Willow insisted. "I've managed a lot more before."

Buffy snorted. "So have I," she shrugged for maximum effect. "But what we really should be worrying about is why it happened."

"How are we even gonna find out?" Willow asked weakly. "I mean, it pretty much came out of the blue…"

Buffy frowned as she suddenly remembered the last seconds before Willow had discovered the bomb. "Giles called me," she stated.

Willow's expression went from helpless to unbelievably stunned in half-a-second. "What?"

"Just a moment before you found the bomb," Buffy went on. She was suddenly getting excited. "That's weird, right?"

"What did he say?" Willow wanted to know.

"Nothing," Buffy admitted. "I didn't have time to answer."

The two girls shared a brief look of understanding, before Willow nodded eagerly. "Call him!" she ordered.

One of the nurses showed Buffy to a phone in the hallway. Her heart pounded so viciously in her chest that it seemed to her like it might soon break through her ribs, as she dialled Giles' number in England. She repeatedly bit her lip and changed her stance from one foot to the other while waiting. It seemed like forever until somebody finally answered.

"Hello?" she heard Giles' unmistakable voice at the other end of the telephone line. He sounded strained.

"Giles," she breathed nervously. "Hey, it's Buffy."

"Buffy!" he exclaimed relieved, British accent ringing warm and familiar in her ear. "Thank God, you're all right! I was so worried."

He laughed nervously. Buffy felt warm all over just at the sound of his voice and she wished that she could see his face. "I missed you," she said softly, but quickly remembered why she was calling him. "Giles, why did you know I was in danger? You called like just a moment before the bomb exploded, it was creepy!"

"Bomb?" Giles called out in alarm and Buffy thought she could almost _hear_ the typical expression of unease forming on his face. "What bomb? My God, Buffy, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Buffy said, feeling slightly confused now. "And Willow's ok too"-

"Andrew, be quiet, I can't understand what she's saying!" Giles barked at a hysterical voice in the background. "I'm sorry Buffy, what was that about Willow?"

"She's fine," Buffy repeated. "Giles, I'm confused, didn't you hear through the phone?"

"Well, no," he responded. "All I heard were, were screams and noise before it disconnected!"

"Huh?" Buffy wondered in confusion. "Then why did you call? Why did you know I was in danger?"

"Well after Faith was attacked I wanted to warn you," Giles explained matter-of-factly. "I thought maybe you were going to be next"-

"What? Faith got attacked?" Buffy interrupted him in shock. What the hell was happening? "She ok?"

"Yes, yes, she made it, but one of her Slayers was… killed…" he told her, apparently reluctant to have to give her such bad news.

"Some of mine too…" Buffy said sadly, playing with the telephone cord. It didn't feel like her speaking when she was saying these things. Almost like someone far away was delivering words that her brain had formed.

"Oh…" Giles sounded aghast. "Oh Buffy, I'm so sorry"-

"Do you know why she was attacked?" Buffy quickly went on, decidedly suppressing her grief.

"Well, y-yes… actually I do," Giles affirmed. "A-at least I think I do."

"And?" Buffy pushed him to go on.

"Uh…" She heard him take a deep breath through the phone. "Faith discovered something. Something we've been working on for the last few months."

Buffy couldn't help instantly feeling her old grudge boil beneath the surface. Old habits died hard. "Something I wasn't in on?" she asked, carefully controlling her voice. She couldn't help it, no matter how much time passed she still couldn't stand it when someone put Faith above her.

Giles sighed. "Buffy, I'm sorry," he said honestly, for he probably knew just how much she hated this. "But I can explain that some other time. Right now I need you to be careful and…"

"And what?" Buffy asked. She was liking this less and less by the second.

"I know this is a lot to ask, but… Buffy I need you to come to England," Giles let out with a sigh, as if he had been holding it in like a huge gulp of air until now. "As soon as possible."

As expected this hit Buffy completely by surprise. "Whoa," was all she could manage after a few seconds of silent shock. "Giles, what's going on?"

"It's… it's very serious," he admitted, but still squirmed to tell her more. "I know this is extremely short notice, but, but I need you all to come, you and Willow and the Slayers which are still" – they both didn't miss how he stumbled over the dead – "available. And you might as well bring Dawn along, you shouldn't risk her getting hurt by leaving her unprotected."

Buffy listened, all the while shaking her head as he kept talking nervously, until she finally had enough. "So, let me get this straight," she summarized gruffly. "You're basically asking me to leave everything here behind – for a mission I know nothing about – and you won't tell me why?"

"I-I realize it is a bit vague but…" Giles breathed deeply and continued earnestly. "Buffy, I need you to trust me with this. There's no time now, I'll explain everything when you're here, but… This thing is huge and it is dangerous."

"What is it?" Buffy wanted to know.

There was a beat of complete silence. Even Andrew had stopped talking in the background.

"It's about Los Angeles."

. . .

After two and a half hours of flight, the pilot's voice finally sounded through the plane, announcing that they would be landing in London shortly. Buffy gently nudged Dawn, who was sleeping next to her. She envied her of being able to sleep.

"Hey," she murmured when Dawn yawned and started stretching. "We're almost there."

Willow, who was sitting next to Dawn, was still mindlessly staring out the window. While Dawn grumbled disapprovingly, Buffy turned toward the aisle to see how everyone else was doing.

She spotted some of the fourteen Slayers that had been able to come with her. All of them still looked depressed and Buffy didn't blame them. Not that it was easy for her, but she had dealt with loss like this before. They had never needed to until now. Nine girls had died and eight were too badly injured to go anywhere. This was the first time that they had to deal with the seriousness of what they were.

Buffy had thought about this often, since she had basically changed the world three years ago. When she had been called as a Slayer, the importance of that duty had always been clear to her, right from the start. It naturally had to be; when there was only one Slayer in the world, it was her alone that had to deal with all the horror.

_One girl in all the world, a chosen one._ _She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness._

Now there were hundreds, if not thousands of chosen ones all over the world. There was almost nothing left of the pressure and the sacrifice and the loneliness that came with the power. Not to them anyway. None of them were fully prepared for what a Slayer really had to be able to confront, because nothing ever depended on them. They had never experienced the true fate of what a Slayer had originally been intended to be.

The funny thing about changing the world, Buffy thought, was that once you did it, the world was all different. Then you suddenly had to realize that change wasn't always good and easy, it was hard work. New problems arose with it, problems that you had never thought of before. Everything depended on how you dealt with them.

"Gosh, look at the weather," Dawn groaned sleepily, looking out the window at the thick, grey rain-clouds. "As if we weren't already depressed…"

"Well," Willow murmured in a dreary, quiet voice. "At least it's not teasing us with sunny happiness…"

"How's your head?" Buffy wanted to know, giving her friend a look of concern.

"Fine," Willow responded, but when Buffy showed her a firm look she gave in. "A bit sore. I'm trying not to do any sudden movements."

"Can't you do a spell or something?" Dawn suggested, stretching her arms out over her head.

"Sure, I probably could," Willow shrugged. "But you know… Human healing process is complicated… don't wanna mess anything up."

The plane was now steadily diving through the thick clouds and down to the airport.

"So what exactly is the plan?" Dawn wanted to know. "We discuss strategies?"

"I have no idea," Buffy sighed in displeasure. "He was so cryptic on the phone, he just mentioned L.A. and told me to come."

"Well, it's not like we weren't expecting it…" Willow pointed out thoughtfully. "It's been on his mind for a while now…"

Buffy nodded, more to herself than to her friend "Yeah, I guess…" she murmured. "But just… that thing he didn't tell me about… I mean, you were here before you came to Rome, he didn't tell you anything?"

"No," Willow shook her head. "Maybe that's why he was so tense…"

"But why wouldn't he tell you?" Dawn wondered, speaking aloud what Buffy had been asking herself ever since she had put down the phone in the hospital. "He was your Watcher and you're still his number one Slayer, right?"

"Apparently not," Buffy muttered gloomily.

"Buffy, no, don't even say that!" Willow protested, sounding distraught. "I'm sure there's a reason… like… He didn't want you to get hurt or… Faith… happened to be in the area or something…"

Buffy chuckled darkly at Willow's attempt to explain. "Guess we'll just have to wait and see."

The plane landed in London a short while later. As the group of women walked into the airport, Buffy was anxious to keep them all together. The attack in Rome had left her wary and watchful wherever she went. She was already relieved that they had survived the flight; now she was staying alert for other dangers.

"Someone's picking us up, right?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Buffy said absent-mindedly while counting the Slayers. "Twelve, there's only twelve! Where's Charlotte?"

She quickly searched the crowd, which was still streaming out of the gate behind them.

"And Tamara!" she said loudly. "Where are they?"

"Calm down, Buffy, we're here!" a girl called, waving to her from the back of the crowd.

"Oh, right…" she chuckled nervously, while rubbing her palm across her cheek. "Sorry."

"Well, you did always know how to freak 'em, Buff!" a familiar male voice chuckled from behind her.

Buffy instantly squealed with delight and turned around to face him. "Xander!" she exclaimed happily and threw her arms around him. She had seldom felt to happy to see someone in her life. Willow and Dawn followed and they all happily engaged in a group hug.

"Wonderful Xander!" Willow murmured lovingly.

"We missed you so much!" Dawn chimed in, with a hint of accusation in her voice. The girls behind them giggled at the display of affection.

"Ok, guys…" Xander protested cautiously after a few moments and grunted. "Feeling the love… Big, crushing, painful love… that's starting to squish me…"

"Huh?" Buffy murmured confused, for she was so wrapped up in the feel of her oldest friend that she had totally forgotten everything that was happening around her. But she soon noticed that her powerful arms were enclosing Xander's torso in an iron grip, so she hastily proceeded to pull away. "Oh, right, sorry…" And all three of them backed away from him.

"Wow, really looking good, guys!" Xander noted examining all three of them.

"You look exactly the same," Buffy said with an affectionate smile.

"Well, not quite the response I was hoping for," Xander chuckled in amusement. "But ok."

"Xander, what are you doing here?" Dawn asked, sounding as amazed as Buffy felt. "We had no idea you were coming."

"Giles called me in," he said cheerfully. "Told me there was an emergency going on, some kinda big bad with evil plans… Who'd wanna miss that?" And he grinned goofily for emphasis.

"Like old times…" Willow agreed brightly.

"And I heard about the explosion," he went on, now sounding more concerned as he analyzed all three of them individually. "Everything ok? No permanent damage, right?"

"Well, not us anyway," Buffy muttered quietly. Xander nodded in comprehension and gave her a look that assured her of all the support in the world. There were no words to describe how much she had missed him.

"So, this is Xander…" Buffy heard April's voice from behind her. She had completely forgotten about the younger Slayers, who were still standing there in anticipation.

"Yes, I am," Xander said, beaming at all of them. "I see you've told them about me. How's it going girls?"

"Oh, yeah," Buffy giggled. "I told them a lot!"

"Right down to the love spell and the eye patch and the demon attraction…" Laurie said laughing, while the other girls all grinned in rememberence of those stories.

"Hey, say what you will about this baby," Xander joked, pointing at his eye patch. "But turns out, chicks dig it, ok?"

"I'm sure," Willow chuckled, leaning against her best friend happily.

"So," Xander said, clapping his hands together to get everyone's attention. "You girls ready for the ride to command central?"

While they headed out of the airport and toward the nearest taxi rank, Buffy asked Xander if he knew what exactly was going on.

"As of now, I have no idea," he responded apologetically. "But I know it's big. We can ask the others, but I guess, we'll find out in the meeting Giles planned for today."

Buffy gave him a stunned look at his choice of words. "Xand," she wanted to know. "Who exactly are _the others_?"

He gave her a quick meaningful glance and responded. "Everyone."

. . .

The water splashed beneath their feet, as Angel, Spike and Illyria hurried through the sewers. The noise they were consequentially making made it hard to outdistance their pursuers, who were only a few turns behind them. Spike glanced over his shoulder, but didn't spot them anywhere yet.

"Go, go, go!" Angel hissed in a low voice, turned into a new tunnel of the maze and opened a doorway on the side. "In here!"

All three of them forced their way into the tiny space and shut the door. They stood there in silence, listening to the sounds of their pursuers coming closer and closer. A few seconds later, they could make out the splashes of their steps echoing through the tunnel, moving away from them.

Once they had passed, Spike sighed frustrated. "Bloody hell," he fussed. "I don't know if I can do this any longer!"

He was tired of hiding. All they had been doing for the past few days was hiding. Their faces were now so known to the nightly roaming demons, that they couldn't even go out to help the helpless without risking being discovered. They had only barely managed to avoid outnumbering conflicts, let alone get any further information on the prophecy. That was the reason why they were now on their way to the Hyperion. Angel was hoping that Gwen might know something after all.

"I'm telling you, if she doesn't know at least something useful, I'm just gonna turn you in myself!" Spike told Angel, while he was pushing open the door and stepping back into the tunnel. "It's bloody madness going there now! Where do you think they'll look for you first?"

"If you've got a better idea, I'm all ears, Spike!" Angel responded, sighing in irritation.

"Yeah, I've got a better idea!" Spike retorted belligerently. "One along the lines of _don't walk into a death trap_"-

"With the noise you are both making, they will catch us here and now," Illyria interrupted their argument with cold indifference.

Suddenly a deep rumbling, coming from the ground above them went through the tunnel, and made the ceiling shake.

"Whoa!" Angel called out trying to keep his balance. "What the hell is going on up there?"

Spike shrugged casually. "Bankers gone wild?" he suggested.

"Hardly," Illyria responded, while Angel rolled his eyes. "Chaos thickens as the sun grows weaker. There is no heat left. None."

She slowly let her hand drift along the tunnel walls. "Boundaries begin to dissolve, the city is no longer it's own," she whispered meaningfully. "I can feel it."

"What the bloody hell is she talking about?" Spike sighed, looking from Illyria over to Angel.

"No idea," Angel responded and took a step towards Illyria. "Is there something useful you can tell us or are you just speechifying?"

When she didn't react to this even slightly, Angel and Spike both shrugged to each other and continued on their path to the Hyperion. During their chase they had come pretty close, so it wasn't far now. As they were climbing out of the sewers and into the basement of the old hotel a while later, Spike could already make out the sound of a large mass of voices coming from above.

"Angel, listen, it's a bloody zoo up there!" he kept nagging. "How the hell are we gonna get up there without being recognized?"

"I don't know, just walk really fast!" Angel growled

"Oh, brilliant plan!" Spike rolled his eyes. "That's right up there with _just don't get killed_!"

"Well, then that's the plan."

The three of them walked up the steps to the basement door. Angel opened it just a little bit, a slot wide enough for him to peak through.

"Damn, you're right," he admitted to Spike. "There's like three times as many people than last time I was here…" He stepped back from the door for a moment to think. Spike noticed Illyria staring intently at the door; her gaze was strained and her face seemed strangely upset.

"You know what?" Angel then said. "I think we should just… try to walk up to the first level without drawing too much attention to ourselves."

"Wow!" Spike responded in approval, nodding his head in fake admiration. "Come up with that all by yourself, did you?"

Angel ignored this and carefully opened the door. Walking into the entry hall and through the incredibly large mass of people, they tried to blend in as best they could. This proved to be virtually impossible; Spike and Angel both with their leather coats and gloomy aura, and especially Illyria with her blue hair and otherworldly costume, were hard to overlook next to the average homeless person.

Spike tried to keep his head down as much as possible, so as not to attract attention to himself. A lot of these people were wounded; Spike could smell the large amount of blood everywhere throughout the hall. Even though he had been off human blood for quite some time now, the craving never stopped. There was always a small part of him that was still lusting after what he was meant for, still urging him to give into his animal instincts. It wasn't that big a challenge to resist, but still, it was always there, reminding him of what he was. A monster.

Although he would never admit this to Angel, he knew what it had been like for him, trying to achieve redemption for over a hundred years, when deep down he knew that this was never possible.

They managed to get up the stairs and onto the gangway, where there were already fewer people, without any endangerin incidents arising.

"Ok, well, that went better than expected," Spike pointed out approvingly.

"All right," Angel said in a low voice. "I'll head up to Gwen's room, let's hope she's there. You guys stay here and keep watch in case someone comes looking for us."

"Right, keep watch!" Spike scoffed. "And what are we supposed to do, if someone shows up? Talk them into holding back the attack?" He pointed down to the main entrance of the Hyperion. "There's only one exit, no chance to escape if they find us."

"Yeah, I know that!" Angel growled angrily. "Just… Whatever, just do it, ok?" And he disappeared into the hallway.

"Why do I put up with this?" Spike asked himself loudly. "Why do I always get the _stand around and do nothing_ job?"

"Angel is the leader," Illyria stated, as if it were a given fact.

"Angel's not my bloody leader, will you get that into your sodding head?" Spike protested in annoyance. He turned away from her and started walking along the gangway.

"And yet you follow him," she went on, following closely behind him.

Spike sighed as he came to a stop next to a pillar in order to keep himself hidden from the people below. "Look, I don't _follow_ him…" he explained slowly. "But I'm on his team. Fighting the good fight."

"It always sounds so meaningful, when you say that," Illyria responded thoughtfully. "But is it, really? We all have decided to fight. What difference have we made so far?"

"That's not really what the fight's about, love," Spike murmured gloomily. "At the end of the day… It never makes a difference."

"But it should," Illyria said decidedly and looked over the balustrade, down at the crowd in the entry hall. "All this pain… suffering… My insides twist simply by seeing it. My throat… it's…" She seemed to be lost for words. Slowly raising her hand to touch her throat she went on whispering. "It feels… constricted."

"It's called compassion, pet," Spike told her softly. "That's good. Means you're not inhuman."

"But I am," Illyria asserted powerfully, returning back to her authoritative self. "I am Illyria, ruler of the Primordium, I am not affected by human weakness! I surmount each of these creatures!"

"Yeah, yeah," Spike sighed. "We're all very intimidated…"

After all this time they had spent together, he had gotten to know Illyria only too well. This was her way of protecting herself. The more high-nosed and almighty she acted, the more insecure she really was. He knew there was something bothering her, but he didn't ask, because he knew she wouldn't answer, she was too proud for that. The only way to find out was to just let her be and hope that she would bring it up herself.

"I do not understand," Illyria said quietly. "All of this desperation, the… hopelessness… Why can't…"

Spike watched a blonde young woman banning her way through the miserable crowd, trying to be everywhere at once. He could see the hopelessness in her eyes.

"I can feel it," Illyria whispered. "Their sorrow… And I do not understand. I don't know what to do."

Her voice was getting louder now. Spike turned to look at her with a frown and was stunned to see her expression. Her face was a mask of desperation verging on madness.

"There has to be something I can do!" Her voice was quivering. "You always know what to say, you always make them feel better, tell me! How do you do it?"

"I don't know…" Spike said slowly. "I don't really… I was terrible at it at first, told the girl I saved that she was a retard."

"Tell me!" Illyria demanded, completely ignoring what he had said. "There must be something I can do! I can feel the pain… inside me... make it stop! Tell me something so I can make it stop!"

Spike was at a loss for words. He had never seen Illyria like this before. She had always been so in control of herself, so intent on not revealing any weaknesses. Now she seemed lost and confused.

"I can't make it stop, pet," he said softly. "No one can."

"You lie!" Illyria hissed. "There are creatures to whom this could not matter less, who…"

She broke off mid-sentence as Spike grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the shadows behind him. He had just spotted a large group of policemen coming through the main entrance.

"You would dare to"-

"Illyria," he hissed, as he nervously watched them taking the blonde woman aside, whom he had noticed before. One of the police officers took a few pictures from his pockets and showed them to her. When she shook her head, he indicated for his men to spread out.

"Bugger!" Spike exclaimed and started hurrying towards the stairwell.


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N:** Hey guys, I'm back, you miss me? Hope you guys like the new chap haha ^_^_

_Unbetad so sorry for errors._

* * *

**Chapter 5**

. . .

The center of the new Watcher's council was set in the midst of the city of London. Buffy felt her heart racing, as she stepped out of the cab and into the antique looking building. She had no idea what to expect. Xander and Willow were chatting happily next to her, just like they had always done. Dawn was behind them talking to the Slayers.

Buffy wondered how they were doing it. She was so on edge; she didn't feel able to lead a normal conversation at this point.

Xander lead them up the stairs to the fifth floor where the council's offices were set. All of them looked around curiously, as they entered the foyer. The rooms were furnished extremely classy and there were bookshelves everywhere, giving it the appearance of an ancient, secret library.

"Whoa," Buffy whispered.

"What did I tell you?" Xander murmured to Willow. "It's got Giles written all over it!"

Buffy tore her gaze from all the books and the décor, as she noticed a slim figure on the other side of the room, turning excitedly at the sound of their voices.

"Buffy!" Andrew exclaimed happily, face lighting up in joy at the sight of them. He hurried toward her and threw his arms around her before she had time to protest. "Oh, Buffy, you're ok… I missed you so much!"

"Um… hi, Andrew," Buffy said in a strained voice, shooting her friends a helpless glance.

"Well, that certainly shows us how much he learned about personal boundaries," Xander noted under his breath.

"Xander!" Andrew cried, withdrawing his arms from around Buffy and hurrying toward him.

"No, no, no…" Xander mouthed, but couldn't stop the other man from hugging him tightly.

Dawn and Willow couldn't help giggling at his abashed expression. "I didn't even see you yesterday!" Andrew said reproachfully.

"Gosh, what a surprise!" Dawn laughed, which got her an annoyed look from Xander.

Buffy missed the rest of the conversation, for her gaze had just fallen upon Giles who was only now entering the room. He gave her a cautious and almost sheepish look and it seemed evident that he was unsure of how she would react. "Buffy," he said softly.

She stared at him for a long moment, then suddenly thrust aside all her reservations and hurried forward to hug him. As he wrapped his arms around her, she suddenly felt like she was sixteen again, like everything was going to be all right, just because Giles was now here. Unfortunately this wasn't the case anymore.

"I'm so glad that you're all right," he said smiling, as they broke apart again. "No incidents on the flight, I trust?"

He examined a cut on her cheek. "Nope," Buffy responded casually. "Nothing. Whoever was behind the attacks was probably scared of planes."

Giles chuckled slightly at this. "Faith?" Buffy asked.

"Yes, she's all right," Giles said and pointed towards the doorway behind him. "She's right through there. How are you?"

Buffy shrugged. "Alive and kicking," she said with an indifferent expression, causing a thoughtful crease to appear on her mentor's forehead.

"Hi, Giles," Willow said with a tentative smile, coming closer. Giles smiled softly and also hugged her. While he asked her how she was doing, Buffy turned around and noticed that her Slayers were looking slightly lost.

Andrew was happily rambling out stories at Dawn, and Xander seemed to be explaining something to Laurie, who had an almost strained look of focus on her face as she was trying to understand what was going on here. Naturally this was all very new to them, coming into this closed circle of the operation.

"But still, I don't get it Giles," Willow quickly returned to the issue at hand, a gentle but confusedly enquiring expression on her face. "You know, I was here just a few weeks ago… And you've had like this whole secret operation going on here… How come didn't I know about this?"

"Well, uh…" Buffy could tell that Giles felt guilty about it. "It's really a long story, but… Now that you're all here… I-I see no reason to withhold it from you any longer…"

"Good," Buffy said casually, trying to keep the resentment from her voice. "Then I say, let's get started."

"Yes, quite…" Giles responded looking over at the Slayers. "Um… maybe Andrew could take your Slayers to the hotel…"

"Giles, they were just bombed and lost some of their friends," Buffy said decisively. "Don't you think they deserve to know what's going on?"

"Yeah, c'mon, Giles!" Xander, who had also come closer, agreed. "They're all Slayers, they're part of the gang!" Laurie whispered something into April's ear nervously. They all looked so incredibly young and innocent. Buffy knew, the sooner she would include them, the faster they would adjust to the situation.

"Yes, uh… I suppose so," Giles murmured, clearly not wanting to argue with them.

"So," Buffy indicated for them to come closer. "Girls, this is Giles, used to be my Watcher."

The girls looked at him insecurely and nodded. "Hello," He said, smiling. "So, um, shall we?"

He turned around and led them through the doorway into the actual library. Upon entering, Buffy's jaw immediately dropped as she looked around at countless shelves containing hundreds if not thousands of books. The rich smell of thousand-year-old paper and papyrus penetrated her nostrils. The last time she had been in London, Giles had been only in the process of the build-up, collecting as many books as he could and having no idea where to put them. Now she felt like she was standing in the middle of an ancient archive. It was amazing how much he had managed to achieve in only two years.

"Welcome, Junior Vampyr Slayers," Andrew said dramatically. "To our humble abode, the place where hundreds of stories reside…"

"Who is this clown?" April whispered to Xander.

"He's… I don't know, I guess that's open to debate," Xander joked. "He likes to tell stories, just ignore him."

The missing height of the room had been compensated by the enormous amount of shelves. As they walked through the various bookshelves, Buffy found herself circling continuously, admiring the antique architecture and the ornate ceiling frescos.

"I know, right?" Willow whispered next to her, noticing Buffy's awe. "I couldn't believe it either last time, it's amazing…"

"Well, sure," Xander responded reluctantly. "If you block out the countless hours of research we'd have to do here…" – he frowned with an almost fearful expression before continuing – "anyone else regret coming?"

"Yes, because I would certainly choose to have you research, when I have several council scholars at my disposal," Giles mumbled sarcastically.

"Oh well, that's…" Xander sounded relieved until he realized what Giles had meant. "Hey!"

Buffy ran her hand along one of the bookshelves and skimmed through some of the titles. Most of them she couldn't make out, because of the ancient language, some of them sounded dark and powerful. Giles had definitely managed to build up an incredible archive.

"Gee, I had no idea you were that into books, B."

Buffy's head shot up at once as she recognized the woman's voice. "Faith," she said casually.

Faith grinned at her with her typical mischievous expression. Her left upper cheek was heavily bruised but other than that she looked all right. "Long time, no see," she chuckled.

"Yeah," Buffy responded, eyeing her with obvious suspicion. "Heard you were on a mission."

Faith nodded retentively but before she could say anything, the tall and dark figured of Robin Wood suddenly appeared from behind her. "Hello, Buffy," he greeted her in his deep voice and put his arm around Faith.

"Robin, hi," Buffy said and a smile started spreading on her face. "How you doing?"

"Can't complain." He slightly squeezed Faith and smiled at her. "Seeing as we managed to get here alive…"

"You were there too…" Buffy noted, as her smile froze and slowly turned artificial. "That's… great. This just keeps getting better and better…" She turned around and cast a vicious glare over at her former Watcher, who (fortunately for him) didn't seem to notice it.

"Oh, it does believe me," Robin sighed, now sounding more serious. It was all terribly ominous. "Ready to face the music?"

The three of them stepped out of the ally between the bookshelves into an open space in the middle of the library. The first thing Buffy noticed was the enormous amount of people and she was astounded at the numbers. Some of them she knew, like Rona and Vi, to whom she said hello, others were complete strangers to her. Faith introduced her to Paige, one of her top Slayers, who was now training her own squad in Mexico. Even Kennedy had flown over for the meeting, Buffy saw Willow greeting her joyfully.

The more she noticed the apparent size of the event, the more frustrated she got with Giles. Wasn't she still his number one Slayer? Wasn't she supposed to know about important stuff like this? The guy sure had a lot of explaining to do.

After a few minutes everyone started to settle down around a table in the middle. Buffy sat down next to Xander and Willow, feeling that she needed to be close to her best friends in this very confusing moment. A lot of the Slayers were standing around them, since there were far too many people for them all to sit at the table. Dawn looked as though she felt utterly out of place, whispering nervously with Laurie and Jill, who had insisted on coming, despite her injuries. Buffy noticed some of the other Watchers, which she knew from the last time she had been here. Roger Wyndam-Pryce was examining the agitated Slayers disapprovingly while murmuring something into his colleague's ear. Buffy suddenly found herself longing for the cozy atmosphere of Sunnydale. She missed her old house, Giles' apartment, even the old library of Sunnydale High. This was all a bit big for her.

"I miss Sunnydale," she whispered to Xander. Willow was still focused on her reunion with Kennedy to hear their conversation.

"Man, you read my mind, Buff," Xander responded with a dark sigh, before returning back to a more playful tone of voice. "It's all so fancy and official. Where's our awesome Scoobyness?"

"Guess it got replaced by worldwide operativeness," Buffy countered with a shrug.

"Right," Xander nodded. "The international Slayer army." He paused to think about his comment for a moment, frowned and then added: "That actually sounds kind of cool!"

"You think so?" Buffy responded, brow furrowing skeptically.

"Oh, yeah! We could be our own private army," he imitated the voice of a Hollywood narrator. "_Working for good, instead of government_! You could be a general!"

"Ooh, I could get one of those cap thingies," Buffy said cheerfully. "Or one of those uniforms, you know the ones with the stripe thingies that show what rank you are…"

"You mean insignia," Xander corrected her patiently. Buffy rolled her eyes. After all these years the army knowledge was still firmly stuck in his brain.

"So," Roger Wyndam-Pryce called out with authority to make all the conversations stop. "Let us begin, shall we?"

"Sheesh, he reminds me of Quentin already," Xander murmured, irritation obvious in his voice.

Giles, who was sitting across from Buffy, rose from his chair before he started to speak. This again reminded Buffy of their old life in Sunnydale. He had always preferred standing, when announcing grave news. It made him feel more in control of the situation.

"Right," he began. "So, we're here to assess the situation of Los Angeles… which has been decreasing continuously in the last few years. For those of you who don't know this…" And he looked around specifically at all the younger Slayers. "It is all being caused by a firm called Wolfram & Hart. Now this, this company…" He slowly started pacing around the table. "Is, in our world known mostly as a law firm. But under the surface it… it is… sort of an organization – one might say – which represents millions of the worst forms of evil from… all over various dimensions."

"What do you mean _represents_?" Rona interrupted him. "Are they like demon lawyers or something?"

"Among other things, yes," Giles responded. "What can be said is that they are… an enormously powerful force. They, they specialize in securing thousands of demon schemes and in, well… utilizing their combined forces to bring about the apocalypse."

"Right," Xander scoffed. "Cause that's definitely a threat we've never heard before…"

An anxious murmur went through the crowd as Giles sighed in irritation. "It isn't just any apocalypse, Xander," he said impatiently. "Wolfram & Hart has existed since the dawn of time, it roots back to the time when the Old Ones were still ruling. This isn't your everyday, _we-live-on-a-Hellmouth_ apocalypse!"

"Just saying," Xander lifted his hands in defense. "Bad guys aren't really that original when it comes to their ultimate goal."

Giles pointedly ignored this and continued in his explanations, while Xander grinned smugly at Buffy. "Well it's true, isn't it?" he murmured. Buffy smiled.

"The firm's owners," Giles said. "Are beings which are referred to only as the _Senior Partners_."

"What are they?" again Rona asked.

"I'm afraid, I really don't know," Giles admitted gloomily. "I believe nobody knows."

"Convenient," Xander murmured.

"What do you know about them so far?" Willow wanted to know.

"Not much," Giles sighed, as he took off his glasses and started to clean them. Again a sign Buffy knew so well. "I know they're very old, extremely powerful, most likely indestructible."

"See? Piece of cake," Xander said wryly.

"Just like every other thing we've ever faced," Buffy pointed out firmly. "Nothing is indestructible." She gave her mentor a decisive look and demanded: "Giles could you please drop the cryptic and tell us why we're here?"

Giles shifted uncomfortably as he put his glasses back on, well aware of the unresolved tension between him and Buffy. "Y-yes, I suppose so," he continued and looked at her apologetically. "Some months ago… a small group of… associates…"

Buffy could almost feel the awkward tension radiating off her friends, as Giles clearly stumbled over Angel and Spike's names. Their protectiveness annoyed her.

"Rebelled against the Los Angeles branch of the firm and killed several of its' most important clients, or so I'm told. As a punishment to their betrayal… the Senior Partners unleashed incredible demon forces onto the city by creating an inter-dimensional portal. The rebels were… killed… And the city has been sinking into chaos ever since."

Buffy sighed in evident boredom and looked up to the ceiling. This wasn't what she had come for. She knew all this; she had been researching desperately for weeks herself right after it had happened. The mission was what interested her.

While Giles was still explaining the ensuing chaos in the city, Buffy noticed Faith and apparently one of her Slayers putting their heads together and whispering something across from her.

"The problem is…" Giles carried on. "We really had no idea what the Senior Partners are planning. We had no possibility of intervening, because we didn't know what was happening… until now."

Complete silence hovered over the meeting. Buffy felt her interest rise again.

"And now we know?" Kennedy stated uncertainly.

"Yes, I believe we do…" Giles responded. "To a certain extent. Some time ago… a very powerful seer from the coven…" He nodded in Willow's direction. "Althenea, contacted me…"

"Thanks, Giles," Faith suddenly interrupted, slowly rising from her chair. The boisterous Slayer was obviously also annoyed with the amount of detail he was putting into his report. "I'll take it from here."

The atmosphere in the library became more alert again. Various people started whispering among each other, as they expectantly waited for her to speak. Giles looked taken aback by the interruption, but didn't protest.

"To make a long story short," Faith started, grinning smugly. "Seer saw something 'bout some ancient prophecy, supposed to foretell the _end of time_..." She emphasized the last three words with obvious sarcasm. "So we've been researching for a while, Abby and Lana went up to L.A. to check out the situation," She nodded towards the girl sitting next to her. "Discovered some sources and stuff, don't wanna bore y'all with the details…"

Giles coughed meaningfully.

"Anyway, Robin, me and Paige followed after we figured out that the prophecy was most likely in the Wolfram & Hart head quarters. Also something Al-what's her face, I don't know, she felt its presence there or something."

"Althenea," Willow murmured sourly. "And she didn't feel its presence, she"-

"Yeah, ok, Will," Xander whispered soothingly to his best friend. "Save the ranting for later, ok?"

"So last week I broke into the Wolfram & Heart head quarters," Faith said casually.

At once a huge buzzing rose within the room, as everyone started speaking in alarm. "You broke into Wolfram & Hart?" Buffy called out aghast, jumping off her chair. Faith actually seemed surprised at her reaction.

"Do you have any idea how risky that was?" Buffy continued and suddenly all of her anger broke out and exploded infront of every single person in the room. "How bad it could've turned out? This is something that needs planning by EVERYONE!"

"And by everyone you mean you," Faith pointed out, untouched by the other Slayer's outburst.

Buffy glared at her furiously and decided there was nothing to lose. "Who are you to do something like this without me?" She looked over to Giles. "All of you. What the hell is going on in your heads?"

Everyone remained silent. Robin and Giles lowered their gazes, while Faith continued looking at her but made no attempt to respond.

"Was it because of Angel?" Buffy asked, not caring about all the strange people listening in on their conversation. "Or Spike? Cause you know, if you've, by any chance noticed, I'm 25 years old!" She pointedly looked at Giles. "I'm a big girl, I can handle it."

Giles looked at her, hesitating. It was evident from his face that there was something he wanted to tell her, she could feel it. But he didn't say it.

"Look, B, I'm sorry…" Faith said. "Truth is, I just thought maybe I could handle it better, you know… Cause I have more distance."

"You were his friend too," Buffy growled at the hidden accusation

"You know what I mean." For some reason Faith almost seemed excited at this point, like there was something longing to burst out of her, that she wanted to tell.

"You know the point is," Xander suddenly spoke up. "None of us knew. Not only didn't you tell Buffy, which already seems strange enough to me, but how come didn't the rest of us know about this?"

"Well you were in Japan, Xand," Willow murmured.

"It was a secret mission," Andrew reminded them, speaking for the first time since the meeting had started. "The less people knew about it the better. We thought… there wasn't really a point in including everyone until we actually had something."

"And now we do," Faith said firmly. "Look, I know it sucks and I'm sorry. But the important thing is I'm safe and I got it."

"You got it?" Willow said eagerly.

"Yeah, I did," Faith said and smiled again. "Piece of cake really, got out before they were even onto me. They chased us through the city though, after we got out…" Again she tossed Abby a meaningful glance. Buffy didn't know what to make of this. "And we were attacked on the way to the airport," she continued, now sounding more aggrieved. "Lana… She didn't make it."

Buffy looked over at her sister and her Slayers and wasn't surprised to see sorrow on their faces. She felt the old hardness rise in her again, the same manner of distancing herself, which she once feared would have the ability to turn her into stone. It was now ever so clear to her that this was a skill a true Slayer needed to possess. To make the hard choices when nobody else could. She wanted to mourn over the girls, she really did, but all she could think of was battle strategies. They had started to lose soldiers before the fight had even begun.

"What did you get out of the prophecy?" she asked Giles, feeling the need to act. "Tell me you have something."

"We do," Mr. Wyndam-Pryce announced and placed a ragged looking book, which he had been holding in his hands on the table.

"That's the prophecy?" Xander asked with obvious scepticism.

"Indeed," he said, raising an eyebrow to Xander's tone.

Xander shook his head, looking at the small, insignificant book. "Now that's what I call anticlimax," he snorted scathingly.

"It's burned," Willow stated, noticing the adust, blackened back.

"Yes, that's the problem," the Watcher replied. "The back part of it was almost destroyed during the attack" – he cast an excusing glare in Faith's direction – "one presumes it should have been better protected."

"Oh, dear God!" Xander exclaimed in frustration.

"Hey!" Faith said angrily. "We were bombed and it caught on fire, I'd like to see you do better!"

"But the first part," Buffy pressed on, looking at Giles. "What did you get outta that? Will, didn't you say something about inter-dimensional activity, is that it?"

"Yeah," Willow nodded.

Buffy expectantly waited for the Watcher to speak, as he once again took off his glasses. "Come on, Giles, spill already!" Xander demanded.

Giles breathed deeply and hesitated, as he slowly placed his palms on the table to support his weight. This scared Buffy even more, for she knew exactly what his hesitation meant. He was trying to sum up the right words for the grave news he was about to present.

"It's slipping into hell," he finally breathed.


End file.
